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Orientalism - how does the West see the East?

Writer's picture: Fanoos Magazine OrianaFanoos Magazine Oriana

As a dancer, it is important (in my point of view) to have an excellent knowledge of history and customs. To avoid clichés and especially missteps that could hurt our audience. Our intention must be to support culture, not to ape it. That is why I began to study the artistic movement which appeared in the 19th century under the name of Orientalism. Which, to my surprise, seems currently existing today. Between clichés and preconceptions, I invite you to dive with me into the vision that Europe has had of the Middle East through works mainly in French.


Orientalism, what is it?

Put history in its context; Europe has its eyes on the rest of the world: the US, Asia, the Middle East. It has continuously, during the colonial period, extended its power in order to «pacify», «educate» and establish its supremacy. Napoleon Bonaparte has a desire for expansion and already sees himself as the new Alexander the Great. After a victory in Italy, he decided to attack the world that has always frightened Europe: the Ottoman Empire. A tired and declining Empire. Its purpose is mainly controlling a strategic point in the road between England and its Indian counters.

Inspired by the work of Constantin-François Chasseboeuf, count de Volney, he mounted a campaign between military conquest, political influence and scientific expedition. Paris then loses its interest in ancient Rome and Greece to the benefit of this new culture to discover: these immense temples, these pyramids that testify a rich exotic and exciting history, but which merged with European supremacist thought will generate an incalculable number of false ideas and clichés.

Between the writers who actually went there and mixed their vision with their fantasy and those who simply followed the current and sprinkled with imagination and a touch of religion, the East was portrayed, fantasised by these authors.

The lascivious courtesans who wait in immense harems for their master’s interest... Where does reality end, where does the myth begin?


The Favourite of the emir, Benjamin Constant, 1879 - Washington, U.S. Navy Museum.

Gustave Flaubert

In 1849, he was out of inspiration. He is looking for the idea that will make his next novel a great success, his previous works having been a resounding failure. He heard about a news story, a tragic suicide under the background of adultery. He wanted to be inspired by it, but did not really know how. One of his friends, Maxime Du Camp, a polygraph writer and photographer, offers to accompany him on his expedition. Commissioned by the Ministry of Public Instruction, he must make an archaeological journey to the Orient (Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, Syria). Although he was quite a homebody, Gustave agreed to embark on this crazy adventure (at the time, this kind of travel was long, expensive and especially dangerous). He is thus gone to Egypt, which he will observe with his Western eye, despising the crowd of mosques, seeing no interest in temples and other ancestral constructions. He even went so far as to regret not finding ice cream as they were going down the Nile. He clearly preferred Nubia, closer to his idea of the African continent. From this expedition was born the book «Voyage en Orient» which focuses more on the magnificence of places than on the Oriental culture itself.

Writings arrived after his death illuminating another light which could inspire him in this journey. These notebooks were published posthumously and it was discovered that he made an important stop in Esna, in Upper Egypt. He met the Ghawazi Kuchuk Hanem who later inspired oriental dancers of his future novels. On his second visit, he asked the courtesan to perform the “bee dance” that consists in miming the attack of one of these insects by removing its clothes as a striptease. This erotic experience will be recorded in his notebooks and he will return to France with a fantasised idea of oriental women and syphilis.



Picture taken by Maxime du Camp

Oscar Wilde

He too was influenced by the stories of the Orientalist explorers of the time, but unlike them, he never set foot in the Orient. In 1891, he wrote the tragedy Salomé inspired by a biblical episode. 

Salome, daughter of the Tetrarch (governor of Galilee) Herod Antipas, danced for her father’s birthday (or father-in-law according to some writings). The governor and his guests liked this dance so much that he decided to offer what she wanted as a reward. Rejected by the latter, she demanded the head of Saint John the Baptist.

The tragedy, romanticised (the death of Saint John the Baptist having been blown by Herodiade, the mother of Salome, because he was shadowing a plot she had concocted), which should have been interpreted by Sarah Bernhard, was banned in England, because the depiction of biblical characters was illegal. Oscar Wilde decided to translate his play into French and present it there where it was a great success, lithographs by Toulouse Lautrec even illustrated the program.

In addition to its biblical basis, the author also incorporates more sulphurous images: he likes to put in parallel the pallor of Salome and that of the moon clearly referring to the myth of Cybele who, obsessed with her virginity, took pleasure in persecuting any male figure. 

The dancer depicted here, lightly dressed, waving with her veils, refers to a totally chimerical vision of the Ottoman palaces, she was however the inspiration of great dancers like Maud Allan.



Maud Allan as Salomé with the head of John Baptist

Victor Hugo

Another French poet tried to describe a fantasised orient full of biblical references and romanticised history: Victor Hugo. He published a collection of poems in 1829 called «Les Orientales». Influenced by the craze for Greece of the time, the author of «Les Misérables» and «Notre Dame de Paris», painted the Mediterranean East in a series of poetic paintings.

Like Oscar Wilde, he was inspired by biblical passages as in his first poem «le Feu du Ciel» (the Fire of Heaven) recounting the incident of Sodom and Gomorrah, city destroyed by God in a breath of flames after his two angelic messengers, Loth sheltered, were roughed up by the crowd.

The poem «Clair de Lune» (moonlight) depicted the Ottoman barbarity that, having captured Greek prisoners, threw them into the sea locked in bags or was inspired by oriental myths to describe an attack of Djinns in the eponymous poem.



Illustration of Jean Alfred Gérard-Séguin for “Les Orientales”

Conclusion

All these clichés and preconceptions depict a barbaric East, in which women have light mores, but these stories must be placed in their historical context. We are at a time when the West, proud of its technological advances, sees the East as a backward and wild country. Instead of learning about culture, they prefer to impose their worldview. The Orientals who agree to talk with the settlers are mostly courtesans. Eastern society, rocked by the Islamist movement, protects women from the lustful eyes of men by veiling them. Islam was also described at the time as a sub-version of Catholicism, which only widened the gap between East and West. 

However, not all of them followed this popular movement, Gérard de Nerval, for example, decided to visit the Orient in spiritual quest, preferring to mingle with the crowd and learn their culture, rather than stick to the destinations created by Westerners for Westerners. Giuseppe Verdi wanted to surround himself with the knowledge of an Egyptologist for the production of his opera Aida (although the premiere was in Egypt in front of western audience).

I keep in mind that these are primarily works of fiction. Even now, a biopic takes a point of view, it does not show the truth, but the vision of its creator. Any work of art, whatever it may be, serves a purpose and inculcates values and sometimes reinforces clichés. It is always good to dive into these works, out of simple curiosity, to enrich your knowledge and above all to be able to detect the moment when our dance passes from a desire to transmit the love of a culture to a vulgar caricature.




My name is Amélie, I’m not a teacher, I’m just a Bellydance student. Based in Luxembourg (Europe), I love to travel for my passion (virtually or physically, depending on my time and my bank account).

Except for the dance itself, what I love about Bellydance is the community and the interaction with it. Share, learn, discuss.

Within this article, I have the opportunity to share with you my passion with French writers despite the fact I was a little bit hard with them.

Sources:

Mainly, searches Wikipedia but also some interesting articles (in French sorry) and some original texts passed to posterity as well as the reading of the book Orientalism by Edward Said.

Articles

Article on Oriental Dance (reality and phantasm)

The huge history of Orientalism

The image of the woman

7 things to know about Orientalism

Orientalism

Orientalism (an end of study memoire)



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