Travel Writing on Iran: Counter-Orientalism in Ella Maillart's The Cruel Way

Travel writing becomes an academic object of inquiry in the wake of Edward Said’s Orientalismin which he states travelogues are not the mirror-like pictures of Eastern terrains, but texts that are affiliated with Orientalism written to promote Western Imperialism. Nevertheless, travel scholars like Behdad and Blanton take issue with him, positing that travel writers can transcend rigid strictures of Orientalism. Hence, by invoking the perspectives of Behdad and Blanton, the current study embarks on reading Ella Maillart’s The Cruel Way to throw light on her counter-Orientalism: the moments in which she poses a challenge to Orientalist rhetoric. Accordingly, it argues that she displays her counter-Orientalism in two ways: firstly, through desiring of and engaging fruitfully with holy spaces; secondly via sympathizing and identifying with her local travellees oppressed by Reza Shah’s modernization project. Since Iran has remained unexplored in the studies of her travel book, this study delimits its scope mainly to Iran and partially to Afghanistan.

Travel Writing on Iran: Counter-Orientalism in Ella Maillart's The Cruel Way Keywords:

Gegenorientalismus , Verlangen , Heilige Räume , Sympathie , Identifikation , Modernisierung