Exoticism And Image Of The East In British Literature

In the historical context of the Western and Eastern cultural communication, the present dissertation is intended to investigate the evolving process of exoticism in British literature, and sketch the evolutionary historical orbit of the image of the East.Literary exoticism originates from the encounter and clash of different civilizations, therefore, by tracing the Western and Eastern cultural exchange, the evolving vein of literary exoticism can be teased out. Through the ages, the West never refrains from its exploration of the exotic East. With the extension of knowledge of the East, the geological, cultural, ideological connotations of "Orient/East" also extend further. Meanwhile the Western image of the East becomes more distinct. As one artificial antithesis of the West, the East has long been the favorite subject in the Western literature. From discovery to invention of the orient, the West progressively establishes and modifies a complicated set of theories and paradigms for appropriating "the Other". In different periods of British literature there is an obvious trend towards exoticism, and the images of the East exist in texts of all kinds. It is the very phenomena that provide the present dissertation with topics and key arguments. With the evolving process of exoticism in English literature as a starting point, the dissertation observes the images of the East, which might contribute greatly to the knowledge of the changing laws of the images in the whole Western literature. Thus, the whole format and elaboration of this dissertation fall within the framework of Englishliterature with which leads to a systematic understanding of the textualizing process of the Image.Additionally, the choice of exoticism as one major argument depends on the following considerations: firstly, foreign image is the main embodiment of exoticism, while the image of the East is a conspicuous one, so in the historical cultural context of the development of exoticism, it is easier to understand the objectives of image formulators and their culture.; secondly, as exoticism being one aesthetic taste and style, the research on it may contribute to an analysis of the writing style and subject matter of a particular writer; thirdly, the imaginative nature inherent in exoticism is of help to observe the imaginative behavior of an author or even a nation.Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion, this dissertation is divided into five chapters: 1) Exoticism and the Oriental Others; 2) From Discovery to Invention of the Orient—the Rise and Development of Exoticism in British Literature; 3) Exoticism and the Romanticized Image of the East; 4) Mapping the Image of the East on the Empire; 5) Return to the East —Imaging the East in the 20th Century British Literature. The history of British literature as an axis, the five chapters, by analyzing important writers and works in different periods, aims at revealing the evolving processes of exoticism and the image of the East.The Introduction explains the relationships between exoticism and foreign image. Then based on a brief analysis of academic values and present achievements, the approach and method used in the dissertation is mentioned.Chapter One defines the term of exoticism and its relationship between the image of the Oriental Other. Section One gives a detailed explanation of exoticism form different viewpoints. Though rich in connotations the nature of exoticism is an understanding and representation of foreign culture. In a broad sense exoticism means an escape from the present civilization to a new refuge while exoticism, in a narrow sense, is an embodiment of a writer's enchantment with foreign culture and local conditions, moreover, he is inclined to put them to use in his writings, which may lend unique colors to his works. In the course of the Western literature exoticism has evolved into a discourse practice for theimage formulation of the Other, which takes self-definition and self-transcendence as an ultimate goal. Section Two makes a comparison between exoticism and Said's Orientalism. Exoticism, with its intrinsic nature of imagination and a wider scope, differs greatly from Orientalism. Then an analysis of the cultural formations of the "Oriental Complex" is made to verify the necessity of the antithesis of the Oriental Other for the Western's formulation of self-images.Chapter Two briefly elaborates the formative processes of the tradition in Western literary exoticism and textualizing features of the image of the East before the 19th century. Section One presents the formative processes of literary exoticism. The Western discovery and exploration of the orient is a prolonged process during which a series of historical events contribute to the formation of literary exoticism. The Travel of Marco Polo and The Travel of Sir John Mandeville are two major landmarks in the rise of literary exoticism. Though descriptions of the images in early travelogues are deemed with romantic fancies, they provide proto-texts for creating the image, which exerted an everlasting impact upon the descriptions of the image in the coming centuries. The Great Discovery at the end of 15th century is the most important historical event which promotes literary exoticism. Utopian symbolizes the formation of exoticism tradition in British literature as well as the major spiritual achievement in the Renaissance. However, Britain's knowledge of the East in the 16th and 17th century remained relatively insufficient in that it is unable to cater to the increasing demand for overseas expansion. From the Renaissance to the Restoration Period playwrights and poets, whether in historical or geographical imagination, construct the early images of the East. Section Two presents the images in the Enlightenment literature. Sinomania on the one hand, leads to the superficial imitation of the Chinese artifacts and abuse of chinoiserie, and on the other hand enlightens the literati for philosophical considerations of literary arts and social moralities.Chapter Three expounds the features of exoticism in Romantic literature and the image of the East in poems and essays. Section One is a brief review of the relationships between Romantic literature and the Oriental exoticism. Atthe end of 18th and the beginning of 19th century, a new wave of the "Oriental Renaissance" was surging in the Western countries, with the introduction of Indian and Arabian culture into the aesthetic perspectives of Romantic literature. In the process of quest for the expansion of imagination power, Romantics associate exoticism with Romantic imagination. Section Two discusses the orientalism in the Romantic poems. With their use of the oriental exoticism the three "Lake Poets" display their imaginative power while Byron and Shelley express their strong desire for freedom and emancipation. Section Three discusses the images of the East under the eyes of essayists. Lamb and Landor express their nostalgia in formulating the images of the East, and De Quincey constructs a fearful oriental panorama in his nightmare.Chapter Four dwells on the supportive functions of the Victorian texts in the imperial imagination, and discusses the important roles of literary exoticism in reinforcing imperial control. Section One subdivides the novels into three categories and probe into novelists' oriental fancy. The realistic novelists show their interests in the foreign orient, but exoticism is degraded to a secondary place in their narration. As an ornamental construct, the oriental images often earn symbolic connotations. Exoticism in colonial novels is mingled with much ideological meaning, which reflects the novelists' dual consciousness in dealing with the relations between metropolitan homeland and colonies. The rise of Victorian popular literature brings exoticism into the secular aesthetic perspectives. Novelists of adventure romance and thriller stories display their interests in the East. Section Two deals with the Victorian poets' and prose writers' images of the East. First an analysis is made of poets' use oriental matters to satisfy their fancies and the public imagination. Secondly, a comparative study is drawn between Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Macaulay in their historical imagination of the East.Chapter Five elaborates the trend towards the East in the first half of the 20lh century British literature and points out the birth of hermeneutical exoticism with the increase in dialogical intentions among writers and poets. Section One presents at first the historical and cultural contexts for the hermeneutical exoticism. Then a case study of orientalism in the poems of W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot is provided to show how the poets introduce the oriental mysticism into their modernist aesthetic perspectives. Section Two explores the implications of the oriental utopia. In the quest for a way out of "the Waste Land" there appears a trend of "escape" towards the East in British literature, Novels of W. Somerset Maugham and James Hilton express in different modes their longing for the oriental Utopias.The Conclusion restates the key arguments, pointing out that exoticism has evolved into a literary and cultural discursive practice for fabricating the Oriental Other, which plays an important role in the Western knowledge of the East. In the age of globalization the discourse of exoticism enters the cultural markets in the postmodernist society rather than perish itself. Exoticism is now affecting and will affect the West's concepts of the East and the formulation of the image of the East.