The Other Empire: British Romantic Writings about the Ottoman Empire / Edition 1

by Filiz Turhan

Overview

This book contributes to the body of postcolonial scholarship that explores the growth of imperial culture in the Romantic and early Victorian periods by focusing on the literary uses of the figure of the Turk and the Ottoman Empire. Filiz Turham analyzes Turkish Tales, novels, and travelogues from c. 1789-1846 to expose the three primary ways in which the Ottoman Other served as a strong counterimage of empire for both liberal and conservative writers. Through readings of such authors as Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and Elizabeth Craven the authors identifies the Ottoman Empire as a particularly flexible trope that could be presented as noth familiar or foreign, Same or Other in a way that reflected back onto England its own vexed attitude toward its imperial success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415968058
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/30/2003
Series:	Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Filiz Turhan's work focuses on romanticism, with specific emphasis on orientalism, imperialism, and the gothic. Her current research project is focused on the discursive construction of the Turks in twentieth-century fiction, travel literature, and film. She is assistant professor of English at Suffolk Community College and teaches courses in literature and composition.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Figures Preface Chapter One: The Slippery Signifier Chapter Two: Desire and Disdain: The Travels of Lady Elizabeth Craven Chapter Three: Victim, Vixen, and Virago: The Odalisque in Byron's Turkish Tales Chapter Four: The spoil of wild beasts and unlettered Tartars: Shelley's Uses of the Ottoman Empire and the Figure of the Turk Chapter Five: Figuring the End of Empire in the City of Constantinople Epilogue: To read the long, dark, interior life: Learning One's Lesson from the Lady Hester Stanhope Notes Bibliography Index