scholarly journals Beyond epistemological confinement: The sentimental ethos of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s The Turkish Embassy Letters

Feminismo/s ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Yolanda Caballero Aceituno
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Epistolary Narrative

In the eighteenth century sentimentalism emerged as an ideological and artistic movement highlighting the value of an alternative episteme that posed a challenge to the cult of reason. The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763), by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, are permeated by a sentimental rhetoric aimed at materialising an ethos based on openness, cultural symbiosis and epistemological expansion that contributed to destabilising patriarchal Anglocentric narratives. Following Yuri M. Lotman, in her fruitful mediating position between two different cultural «semiospheres» (Eastern and Western), Montagu could be described as a frontier writer who used her physical journey as a vehicle for literaturising a vitalist cosmovision enabling her to transcend epistemological and emotional constraints. The ideology of her epistolary narrative was effectively encoded by using sentimental motifs, tropes and ideas that generated a unique textuality, the anatomy of which is analysed in this article.

scholarly journals Les récits de voyage épistolaires en Arabie au XVIIIe siècle

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Abdulghani Al-Hajebi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Travel Narrative ◽  
Real Character ◽  
Xviiie Siècle ◽  
Xviiie Siecle ◽  
Epistolary Narrative

Narratives of travel to Arabia in the eighteenth century are often stories written during the journey. These letters form after the return of the traveler the matter of a story published by the traveler himself or by a publisher. The letter that constitutes the travel narrative is usually of particular value: it gives the story a more real character. Based on an analysis of four epistolary travel relationships, this article's main objectives are to prove the presence of letters in travelogues in Arabia, to demonstrate the functions and characteristics of these letters, the originality and specificity of each epistolary narrative. Our study focuses on the letter as a narrative, and not as a mere ornament or circumstantial element related to the course of the action. Les récits de voyage en Arabie au XVIIIesiècle sont souvent des récits par lettres écrites pendant le voyage. Ces lettres forment après le retour du voyageur la matière d’un récit publié par le voyageur lui-même ou par un éditeur. La lettre qui constitue le récit de voyage possède en général une valeur particulière : elle donne au récit un caractère plus réel. Basé sur une analyse de quatre relations de voyage épistolaires, cet article a pour principaux objectifs de prouver la présence des lettres dans les récits de voyage en Arabie, de démontrer les fonctions et les caractéristiques de ces lettres, l’originalité et la spécificité de chaque récit épistolaire. Notre étude se focalise sur la lettre en tant que récit, et non comme simple ornement ou élément circonstanciel lié au déroulement de l’action.

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