An English aristocrat, writer, poet, and wife (1689-1762) of the British ambassador who lived in Edirne and Istanbul during her husband’s official duty in the Ottoman Empire, known for the letters she wrote during her stay.
Published in Chapter:
Orientalism Revisited: Orientalism as Fashion
Elvan Ozkavruk Adanir (Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey) and Berna Ileri (Faculty of Fine Arts, Canakkale 18 Mart University, Turkey)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7180-4.ch013
Abstract
Orientalism is a Western and Western-centric broad field of research that studies the social structures, cultures, languages, histories, religions, and geographies of countries to the east of Europe. The term took on a secondary, detrimental association in the 20th century which looks down on the East. However, this chapter will not dwell on the definition of Orientalism that is debated the most; instead, it will discuss the positive contribution of Orientalism to Western culture. Even though the West otherizes the East in daily life, when it comes to desire, vanity, luxury, and flamboyance without hesitating a moment it adopts these very elements from the Eastern culture. It could be said that this adaptation brings these societies closer in one way or another. The highly admired fashion of Orientalism in the West starting from the 17th century until the 21st century will be the focus of this study.