American Travel Narratives of the Orient (1830-1870)

This study seeks to examine the rise of interest in American travel narratives and increasing Orientalist representations on direct encounter with the "Orient" within six immediately popular and influential narratives. The work traces 19th century American exceptionalist discourses in these narratives via categories of latent Orientalism and argue for a by no means uniform but an indigenous 19th century latent American Orientalism prevalent in these six texts. The analysis also draws on the substantial influence of the journey narrative both as a motif and as a genre in the 19th century American literary scene and its historically embedded impact. The work treats the discursive preferences of the authors as conscious strategies or subliminal reflexes in the national identity formation processes that these narratives partake in.