Orientalism and the Orient: Representing the East in H. Rider Haggard’s novel She

• Thesis title in Czech: Orientalismus a Orient: Obrazy východu v románu H. Ridera Haggarda Ona
• Thesis title in English: Orientalism and the Orient: Representing the East in H. Rider Haggard’s novel She
• Key words: Orientalismus|kolonialismus|koloniální diskurz|E. Said|Orient|Okcident|H. Rider Haggard
• English key words: Orientalism|colonialism|colonial discourse|E. Said|the Orient|the Occident|H. Rider Haggard
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 19.02.2020
• Date of assignment: 20.02.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 21.02.2020
• Date and time of defence: 24.06.2021 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 31.05.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 24.06.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D.

Guidelines

European representations of Eastern cultures have always been somewhat biased. The impact of colonialism and its struggles was articulated by Edward Said in his study of colonial discourse; the book Orientalism presents a detailed description of the prejudiced and exaggerated way of perceiving the Arab-Islamic world by the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Said’s critique of Orientalism will serve as a base for this thesis and thus an overview of the book will be a necessary starting point for any further discussion. Assumptions about the East held by the West before, during and after colonialism will be described together with major contrasts between the Orient and the Occident centred on notions of “the same” versus “the other”. The main object of analysis will be images and representations of the Orient in the book She by H. Rider Haggard as well as the perception of women in the colonized eastern world, when the Orient is gendered as feminine. Moreover, the focus of this thesis will be on the British empire and those colonial discourses by which the West stereotyped the East in order to make it on one hand less fearful and domesticated, on the other threatening and a source of anxiety. In addition, the analysis of the novel will be contextualised by examples of orientalist practices in culture and art, where the world of the Orient is shown as exotic, mysterious, alluring and/or “backward”. This thesis will also consider how persistent Orientalist tendencies still are, for example the scepticism and resentment arising from current Islamophobia and fear of the unknown.

References

Primary sources:

Haggard, H. Rider. She. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.


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