Beyond Orientalism: reimagining the oriental other in Western travel writings

ABSTRACT

The representation of Islamic societies in life narratives by Western voyagers has long been a subject of criticism for their allegedly prejudiced and demeaning portrayal. These narratives are often accused of perpetuating Orientalist discourses and reinforcing Islamophobia. This article problematizes such myopic perspectives by demonstrating how a western-produced travelogue can move beyond hackneyed cultural clichés on the Orient and present an Eastern culture in its opulence. We examine Jürgen Wasim Frembgen’s Nocturnal Music in the Land of the Sufis: The Unheard Pakistan (Frembgen, 2012), which documents the German writer’s mystical journeys into the musical worlds of Pakistan. Drawing upon Bhabha’s concepts of mimicry and hybridity as well as Said’s theory of Orientalism, we argue that the book contests prevailing discourses on western travelogues as apparatuses to reinforce Islamophobia and Orientalism, and instead portrays the country as a dream land that is enriched with olfactory, visual, and auditory appeals.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural transformation
• Orientalism
• frembgen
• Pakistan
• sufism
• travel writing

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the journal’s editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions, which have significantly enhanced the quality of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Abbas, ‘After 9/11;’ Gottschalk and Greenberg, Islamophobia; Kerboua, ‘From Orientalism;’ and Saeed, ‘Racism and Islamophobia.’

2. Edwards, ‘Postcolonial Travel;’ and Lindsay, ‘Travel Writing’.

3. Alù and Hill, ‘The Travelling Eye;’ and Huggan, ‘Counter-Travel Writing’.

4. Lisle, The Global Politics.

5. Chandran and Vengadasam, ‘Colonialist Narrative;’ Forsdick, Kinsley, and Walchester, Keywords for Travel Writing.

6. Adam, Travel Literature; Borm, ‘Defining Travel;’ Bate, English Literature; and Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics.

7. Bassnett, ‘Travel Writing and Gender;’ Clarke, The Cambridge Companion; Thompson, Travel Writing; and Withers, ‘Disguise – Trust.’

8. Culbert, ‘Theory;’ and Quaireau and Ounoughi, ‘Exceptions’.

9. Whitfield, Travel: A Literary History.

10. Clark, Travel Writing and Empire, 1.

11. Korte, English Travel Writing.

12. Bednarczyk, Kubarek, and Szatkowski, Borders and Beyond; Clifford, ‘Anthropology and/as Travel;’ and Menon, ‘Constitutive Contradictions.’

13. Hannigan, ‘Counting up the Lies,’ 15.

14. Matzen, ‘Reviewed;’ and Pourgharib, Hamkhiyal, and Asl, ‘A Non-Orientalist’.

15. Gholi, ‘Representation of Oriental,’ 84.

16. Asl, ‘Gender, Space;’ Menghini, ‘Book Review;’ and Rozehnal, ‘Book Review’.

17. Clements, Writing Islam; and Matzen, ‘Reviewed Work.’.

18. Pourgharib, Hamkhiyal, and Asl, ‘A Non-Orientalist’.

19. Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back, 158.

20. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 162.

21. Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back, 118.

22. Childs and Williams, An Introduction to Post-colonial Theory, 136.

23. Bhabha, ‘Of Mimicry and Man,’ 122–123.

24. Ibid., 123.

25. Ibid.

26. Bhabha, The Location of Culture.

27. Ibid., 56.

28. Ibid.

29. Bhabha, ‘The Home and the World,’ 141.

30. Bhabha, ‘The World and the Home,’ 141.

31. See note 26 above.

32. Huddart, Homi K. Bhabha.

33. Ibid., 3.

34. Said, Orientalism.

35. Ibid., 14–15.

36. Ibid., 36.

37. Ibid., 43.

38. Qiuchen, Asl, and Pakri, ‘Reimagining;’ and Zhou, Asl, and Pakri, ‘Reimagining.

39. Ibid., 39–40.

40. Ibid., 158.

41. Ibid., 206.

42. Ibid., 222.

43. Said, Culture and Imperialism.

44. Said, Reflections on Exile.

45. Sardar, Orientalism, 107.

46. Ibid., 39.

47. Ibid., 287.

48. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 1.

49. Bleich, ‘What Is Islamophobia,’ 1583.

50. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 32–33.

51. Ibid., 34.

52. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient, 3.

53. Ibid., 5.

54. Ibid., xii.

55. Ibid., 32.

56. Ibid., 32.

57. Asl, ‘Gender, Space;’ and Pourgharib and Asl, ‘Cultural Translation’.

58. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 2.

59. Ibid.

60. Asl, Urban; Asl, Gender; Pourgharib, Asl, and Esmaili, ‘Decolonized;’ Chew and Asl, ‘The Poetics;’ Yan and Asl, ‘Precarious;’ and Pourya Asl and Hanafiah, ‘Mapping.’.

61. Fembgen, Nocturnal Music, 4.

62. Said, Orientalism, 59.

63. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 10.

64. Said, Orientalism, 86.

65. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 14.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid., 17.

69. Ibid., 18.

70. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 94.

71. Ibid., 100.

72. Said, Orientalism, 206.

73. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 20.

74. Ibid., 20.

75. Bhabha, ‘Of Mimicry and Man,’ 126.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid., 127.

78. Abbas et al., ‘Peoples’ Perceptions;’ and Buehler, Recognizing Sufism.

79. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 5.

80. Ibid., 3.

81. Ibid., 35.

82. Ibid., 35.

83. Yazdiha, ‘Conceptualizing Hybridity,’ 31.

84. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 86.

85. Ibid., 109.

86. Ibid., 114.

87. Bhabha, ‘Signs Taken for Wonders,’ 155–156.

88. Frembgen, Nocturnal Music, 118.

89. Ibid., 136.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moussa Pourya Asl

Moussa Pourya Asl is currently affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oulu, Finland. He received his PhD in English Literature from Universiti Sains Malaysia, where he worked as a Senior Lecturer of literary studies from 2018 to 2023. His research explores themes within diasporic literature, gender, and cultural studies. He has guest-edited two special issues on postcolonial and diasporic literature and theory for the journal The Wenshan Review. He has edited two books: Gender, Place, and Identity of South Asian Women (Asl, 2022a), and Urban Poetics and Politics in Contemporary South Asia and the Middle East (Asl, 2023). He has published several articles in the above-mentioned areas.

Behzad Pourgharib

Behzad Pourgharib serves as an Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism, University of Mazandaran, Iran. His scholarly pursuits are deeply rooted in 20th-century English and American Literature, Literary Theory and Criticism, and Cultural Studies. He has contributed numerous articles to both national and international scholarly journals.

Soleyman Hamkhiyal

Soleyman Hamkhiyal is a dedicated researcher in the fields of English Language and Literature. He earned his MA in English Language and Literature from Golestan University, Iran. His research is primarily focused on Oriental studies, life writing, Metafiction, and Cultural Studies.