How the East saw the West?

[jhameia]

dmp is going to TeslaCon and there'll be panels, both in-character and out of character (because TC is an "immersive" con), on Orientalism in the 19th century, and they're sticking to literature, specifically.

She's looking for examples of how the East saw the West in that time period and is looking for recs. Fiction and non-fiction, all is good!

Comments

[owlectomy]

This thesis on modern Japanese writers encountering the West might be useful, though the time period may be a little too modern (both authors were active in the 1900s/1910s).

Kafu Nagai's "American Stories" is available in English translation, as is "Labyrinth" by Arishima Takeo; both are based on the authors' experiences in the U.S. in the early 1900s. Mori Ogai's story "The Dancing Girl" is from 1890, and is based on his experiences as a medical student in Germany, but it's more focused on the romance and angst than on the West specifically.

[jhameia]

Rawking!

[frangipani]

How about Hikayat Abdullah by Abdullah Munshi? There's at least one English translation available online at the Sejarah Melayu Library.

[jhameia]

Interesting! I'll have a look at it. It's a bit difficult because there's no tradition of talking about far off lands that I can think of that parallels Western Orientalist narratives.

[frangipani]

The nearest parallel that I can think of is the tradition of non-Arab Muslims writing about their pilgrimages to Mecca -- Abdullah Munshi was one, but there are others from the Nusantara region at least, what with the romantic valorisation of the figure of the musafir. Unfortunately, I don't remember any that talks about encounters with the West.

[jhameia]

Yeah, I'm coming up short with any stories that talk about the West, too =/ I mean, I get that white folk had nothing to go to war over, and it turns out they're not interesting to write home about either.

[horusporus]

hmmm, how about Henry the Black? atm, I've forgotten his Malaccan name, but he was a crewman on Magellan's voyage, and was possibly the first person who've circumvented the world (rather than Mags, on technicality). Anyway, I know I've read a book on him, so there must be floating somewhere his account of his time in Europe...

[horusporus]

wokeh, some quick and dirty links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_of_Malacca

http://lexadventures.multiply.com/reviews/item/8

http://alonganaz.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/panglima-awang-aka-henry-the-black/

[jhameia]

This is really cool but this panel's like this weekend so there may not be time to go rooting through all those (mostly not-English) books for his account? Thanks, though, it's nifty!

[horusporus]

no worries, also i realised maybe the dude's like a couple of centuries early. /o\

[jhameia]

It's okay! Western colonization got its feet wet that time period anyway!

[jhameia]

p.s. Write a steampunk_nusantara entry about it? :O

[horusporus]

i absolutely cannot promise anything. :P

[trinker]

Hmm...I have two popular Japanese songs, but I'd need to date them properly. One about an international fostering situation, and another about an international doll exchange.