Ottoman World and Orientalism in Eothen: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study deals with the orientalist themes of the world of Ottoman that English traveller, Alexander William Kinglake handled in his travel book Eothen, published in 1844. In this study, critical discourse analysis is utilized by considering orientalism both as a discursive ideology, and a socio-political and cultural process. By that, a specific historical framework about the travel book is presented. Kinglake, who does not introduce the Ottoman world that he saw, but the one he wants to see, from an imperialist and orientalist perspective. By that he aims to recreate a different Ottoman and European reality. In Eothen, English/European civilization is presented in techno-centered and colonialist orientalist discourse, whereas the Ottoman Empire/ society is constructed as an absolute other. The element of religion appears to be the fundamental cause of this construction.