On the Way into the Unknown? Comparative Perspectives on the 'Orient' in (Early) Modern Travelogues

/ Termine

On the Way into the Unknown? Comparative Perspectives on the 'Orient' in (Early) Modern Travelogues

Veranstalter
Institute für Modern and Contemporary Historical Research (INZ), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW); University of Salzburg
Veranstaltungsort
Institute for Modern and Contemporary Historical Research (INZ), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Hollandstraße 11–13, 1st floor, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Ort
Vienna
Land
Austria
Vom - Bis
28.11.2019 - 30.11.2019
Deadline
26.11.2019
Website
http://www.travelogues-project.info/intotheunknown/
Von
Doris Gruber and Arno Strohmeyer

The projects 'Travelogues: Perceptions of the Other 1500–1876 – A Computerized Analysis' (FWF-project: I 3795-G28) and 'The Mediality of Diplomatic Communication. Habsburg Envoys in Constantinople in the Mid-17th Century' (FWF-project: P30091, University of Salzburg) invite you to discuss perceptions 'otherness' in travelogues on the 'Orient' (especially the Ottoman and Persian Empires) from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The international and interdisciplinary conference will explore possibilities and limits of comparative analysis and pose the questions of how perceptions of otherness were shaped and what this tells us today about the solidification and change of power relations, stereotypes and prejudices.
In (Early) Modern Times, the 'Orient' was a popular travel destination. People went there on pilgrimages, diplomatic missions, and to trade, conduct research or educate themselves. Records of these experiences offer an excellent source to scrutinize perceptions of otherness. By analyzing this, one has to face several challenges: What people perceived as 'other' is always an expression of relationships. It varied individually and in connection with the socio-cultural background of each person. There is no binary distinction between 'other' and 'own', but a transition zone with a multiverse of variations. Additionally, most of the travelogues were (co-)dependent upon each other and/or different kinds of media. What was perceived as 'other' created and solidified power relations as well as stereotypes. Current research has emphasized the mutual influence of perceptions of otherness and transformation processes connected to politics, media and society. Again, a strong influence of the socio-cultural background can be observed. In the German-speaking-world, the conquest of Constantinople (1453) and the failed siege of Vienna (1683) were decisive events, while the conquest of Granada (1492) played an important role in Spain, and the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the Peace of Eisenburg (1664) had a lasting influence in Hungary. From the 18th century onward, the increasingly differentiated and critically considered notion of 'Orientalism' (Edward W. Said) as well as a simultaneously prospering 'Orientomania' seem to be tangible on a more transcultural level.

Programm

Thursday, November 28, INZ

09:00–09:15: Arrival and Registration
09:15–09:45: Arno Strohmeyer (INZ/ÖAW and University of Salzburg): Welcome and Introduction

09:45–10:45: Panel I: Biographics
Chair: Stephan Kurz (INZ/ÖAW)
Anders Ingram (National University of Ireland, Galway): History and Travelogues: the discourse of ‘Turkish History’ and English travellers’ accounts of the Ottoman world
Deniz T. Kilincoglu and Jörg Wettlaufer (Georg-August University Göttingen): The Reshuffling of Middle Eastern Identities in the Age of Nationalism: Insights from 19th-Century Travelogues

10:45–11:15: COFFEE BREAK

11:15–12:45: Panel II: Perceptions of Otherness (I)
Chair: Elisabeth Lobenwein (University of Klagenfurt)
Donna Landry (University of Kent): Known and Unknown Others: Early Modern Ottoman and British Travellers in Comparative Perspective (short presentation)
Gerald McLean (University of Exeter):Travels among the Kurds in the Seventeenth Century: British and Ottoman Accounts (short presentation)
Maria Endreva (Sofia University): Depictions of Foreignness and Othernness in Felix Kanitz‘ travelogues about Bulgaria
Barbara Haider-Wilson (INZ/ÖAW): “Prokesch and Goethe teach travelling like nobody else.“ Anton Prokesch’s travel account of the Holy Land (1831)

12:45–14:00: LUNCH BREAK

14:00–15:00: Panel III: Perceptions of Otherness (II)
Chair: Ilya Berkovich (INZ/ÖAW)
Christine Kämpfer (Philipps-Universität Marburg) and Stefan Knost (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg): A reluctant observer between two empires: The journeys of the botanist Carl Haussknecht to the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Persia
Michael Fisch (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): “From the Yemen. Hermann Burchardt’s last journey through southern Arabia”. The German-Jewish traveller Hermann Burchardt (1857–1909)

15:00–15:30: COFFEE BREAK

15:30–17:00 Panel IV: Gender Perspectives
Chair: Simon Edlmayr (INZ/ÖAW)
Betül İ. Argıt (Marmara University): Female Slavery and Harems in the Ottoman World
Konrad Petrovszky (INZ/ÖAW): Levantine Feminities in Hammer-Purgstall’s Travel Accounts and Memories
Anna Huemer (University of Salzburg):Foreign Masculinities? The Construction of Gender in Travelogues to Constantinople (Mid 17th Cent.)

17:00–17:30: BREAK

17:30–18:30: Key-Note
Chair: Arno Strohmeyer (INZ/ÖAW and University of Salzburg)
Michael Harbsmeier (Roskilde University): Travels from the Orient, travels to the Orient: does comparison make sense?

Friday, November 29, INZ

09:30–11:00: Panel V: Perceptions of Otherness (III)
Chair: Marion Romberg (INZ/ÖAW)
Stefaniia Demchuk (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv): Inherited or witnessed? Constructs of Otherness in letters and memoirs of Pavel Levashov (ca. 1719–1820)
Susanna Burghartz (University of Basel): The Orient – a blank space in the travel collection of the de Bry?
Johannes Gießauf (University of Graz): The Mongol Heritage in the Ottoman Empire through the eyes of European travelers

11:00–11:30: COFFEE BREAK

11:30–13:00: Panel VI: Intermateriality and Intermodality
Chair: Lena Oetzel (University of Salzburg)
Gabriele Leschke (Freie Universität Berlin): Representations of the Tomb of Christ in works written, designed and commissioned by Otto Friedrich von der Gröben (1656–1728)
Doris Gruber (INZ/ÖAW): Intermediality and German language Travelogues
Irini Apostolou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens): Oriental Images of Otherness: Fashion encounters in 19th century French travelogues

13:00–14:30: LUNCH BREAK

14:30–17:00 Panel VII: Circulation
Chair: Barbara Haider-Wilson (INZ/ÖAW)
Michiel van Groesen (Leiden University): Gasparo Balbi and the De Bry Collection of Voyages: Two European Perspectives on the Orient around 1600
Marcus Keller (University of Illinois): Broken Mirror Effects: The Ottoman Empire in French, Italian, and German Sixteenth-Century Travelogues
Volker Bauer (Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel): Travelogues as raw material of political knowledge: The case of the 'Oriental' states in the Renger series (1707–1716)

17:30-18:30 Visit of the historical part of the Austrian National Library

Saturday, November 30, INZ

09:30–11:00: Panel VIII: Cultural Practices
Chair: Doris Gruber (INZ/ÖAW)
Frédéric Tinguely (Université de Genève): Radical Otherness? The Festival of Ashura according to European Travellers to Persia in the XVIIth Century
Dzenita Karic (University of London): Views from the province: Bosnian Muslims on Hajj from 17th to 19th century
Güllü Yildiz (Marmara University): “The West of the Orient": The Depiction of Ottomans' Capital in Persian Hajj Travelogues

11:00–11:30: COFFEE BREAK

11:30–12:30: Panel IX: Peripheries
Chair: Daniela Haarmann, INZ/ÖAW
Christine Nölle-Karimi (Institute of Iranian Studies/ÖAW): Shifting Peripheries: Iranian Envoys in Khiva
Nikita Khrapunov (Vernadsky Crimean Federal University Simferopol): The Orient in Europe? The Crimea in Western Travelogues from 1783–1810

12:30–13:00: Final Discussion; on publication

For organizational matters, please register until November 26 via: ulrike.rack@oeaw.ac.at.

Kontakt

Doris Gruber

Institute for Modern and Contemporary Historical Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Hollandstraße 11-13, 1st floor, 1020 Vienna, Austria
+43-1-51581-7329

doris.gruber@oeaw.ac.at

http://www.travelogues-project.info/intotheunknown/