Orientalism in Lord Byron's "Turkish Tales" The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814) and The Siege of Corinth (1813) by Abdur Raheem Kidwai. Lewiston, USA and Lampeter, UK: Mellen University Press, 1995, 304 pp.

Abstract

In most of the critical studies of Orientalist and/or colonialist literature, there
is an element of humanist closure, marked by the bracketing of the political context
of culture and history. At times, this humanist closure is deliberate. For it
not only helps in avoiding an analysis of domination, exploitation, denigration,
and manipulation, but also it facilitates in reducing the discursive antagonism
between "we" and "they," between the "white" and the "dark," between the
"Occidentals" and the "Orientals." By distancing oneself from the politics of
domination, this typical facet of humanjst closure makes it possible to reject
Edward Said's suggestion that "colonial power and discourse is possessed
entirely by the colonizer"-an insight with a far-reaching discursive implication
(Orientalism, 1978). One needs to take a critical look at OrientaJism not only to
delineate an accurate representation of a profound conflict but also to highlight those elements of syncretism which are suggestive of “a deviation from conventional western concepts of the orient” (p. v). In fact, in chapter 1, titled
“Image of the Orient in English Literature: A Historical Survey,” it is in this vein
that the main contours of literary Orientalism from the beginning up to Byron’s day are outlined ...