“Scholarly Travel writing” between orientalism and oriental studies : Discourses of Othering in the travelogue of Prof. Felix Tauer (1893-1981)
Abstract
The paper is concerned with “travel reminiscencieds” V Istanbulu před půlstoletím written by renowned Czech orientalist Felix Tauer in the late 1970s, in particular on ways how the Oriental Other was performed in the text and whether this discourse of Othering could be analysed within the conceptual framework of (Post)saidian Orientalism. Tauer´s image of the Orient was predetermined by discourses of orientalist period studies, i.e. by the established system of authorities, cross-references, formal demands on scholarly texts and the model of heroic scholarship.
Beside the self-fashioning of the author and making of positions in the academic field, it also determined Tauer´s arguments and figurative speech, above all the ways he markedly modified the conventional themes and motives of the 19th century Orientalism. The classical repertoire of negative motives took its place, while representing the “inauthentic Orient”, i.e. the Levantines and gypsy nomads.