Sense of Exoticism Among English Travel Writers of The Nineteenth Century to the Near East

Abstract:

           During the Victorian Age the mode of travel writing had been changed. Britain became the major world power, extending its influence into all parts of the world, colonizing vast areas of land on earth. In consequence, Britain fully enjoyed the lion’s share of exploiting the ideas of Orientalism. Tales of others’ lands ministered the love of the romantic, the strange and the alien.

            No doubt that every exotic is the outcome of different societies and climates. This will be shown in this research where I will try my best to show that the sense of the love of the exotic lies behind the Victorian travellers’ sojourns to the Arab East,  and that  these Orientalists concentrated, very much, on bringing out every exotic to their readers in Europe and in Britain in particular.

           This research clarifies certain travellers’ exotic feeling concerning Arabs’ hospitality which has, for ages, been considered as a striking point of values among Arabs. Not only is hospitality seen and praised as exotic, but also women affairs among Arabs have been depicted as arguable sensitive matters.  Death and burial customs among Arabs, too, proved to be exotic among the Orientalists. Finally, I am going to concentrate on Arab Eastern landscape which proved, in its turn, to be the thing of exoticism to the Victorian travelers. All of these factors have proved to be things of attraction on this particular piece of land of the world.

ملخص:

لقد تغيرت طريقة  كتابة الرحالة وأسلوبهم خلال الحقبة الفكتورية ،فأصبحت بريطانيا القوة الوحيدة الممتدة  إلى أجزاء كبيرة من الكرة الأرضية. لذا فكان للإنجليز نصيب الأسد في استغلال فكرة الإستشراق. فقد تربعت قصص الآخرين في الشرق على عرش حب الرومانسية والغرابة المضادة بالنسبة للمستشرقين . لاشك أن كل غريب  هو نتاج المجتمعات والمناخات المختلفة ، وهذا ما سيتم توضيحه في هذا البحث حيث سأبذل قصارى جهدي لإظهار حب الغرابة الذي يكمن خلف رحلات الفكتورين  إلى الشرق العربي ، فالمستشرق منهم  ركز جل اهتمامه على كل غريب وغير مألوف ونقله إلى قرائه في بريطانيا على وجه التحديد .