Sympathetic Portrayal of Turkmen in Blocqueville’s Travelogue: War and Captivity in Merv

• Main Author: Masoud Ahmadi Mosaabad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lasting Impressions Press 2018-05-01
• Series: International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies
• Subjects: Cosmopolitan Traveler; Sympathy; Music; Jewelry; Depiction; Turkmen
• Online Access: http://www.eltsjournal.org/archive/value6%20issue2/4-6-2-18.pdf

Travel writing has been an effective instrument at the hands of Western travel writers to portray non-Western people and cultures especially Oriental ones due to their stark difference with those of the West. They dramatized their travelees/ observees and cultures in two ways: first, sympathetically through adopting an insider‟s perspective as well as through striving to be impartial when they describe their customs and mores; second condescendingly through clinging to their Western cultural baggage resulting in the misrepresentation and misinterpretation of their visited people and cultures. In this regards, Invoking Lisle‟s „cosmopolitan vision‟ as its methodological framework , the present argues that Henry Blocqueville is a cosmopolitan traveler since he in travel book does not denigrate his observees/travelees (here Turkmens), instead he sympathetically portrays them and honors their sociocultural alterity. His positive response towards his travelees manifests itself when he concentrates his cultural focus on jewelry, music, and women in his traversed terrain. Contrary to Blocqueville‟s celebratory attitude towards his travelees, other Victorian travel writers fail to transcend their Eurocentrism