A Non-Orientalist Representation of Pakistan in Contemporary Western Travelogues

Abstract

Travel writings by Western visitors of the Orient have often been rebuffed for disseminating a stereotypical discourse on the people and the culture of the East. The rationale for the collective dismissal of such narratives, however, is built upon a limited canon whose myopic perspective creates a monolithic Orient. It is argued that since this dominant discourse leaves nearly no room for non-conformism, it has conveniently overlooked a large body of travel writings of western writers that adopt a non-Orientalist approach to appreciate cultural differences. To pursue this argument, the present study aims to explore Jürgen Wasim Frembgen's At the Shrine of the Red Sufi: Five Days & Nights on Pilgrimage in Pakistan (2011) to examine how the autobiographical narrator's travel accounts present an alternative narrative about the East that subverts prevailing discourses on travelogues as apparatuses to reinforce colonial/Western norms. To achieve this goal, the study benefits from Debbie Lisle's (2006) theories on the cosmopolitan vision of a travel writer as well as Edward Said's (1978) theory of Orientalism. Frembgen's cosmopolitan vision throughout the narrative neutralizes negative perceptions about Muslim communities in Pakistan as uncultivated and declining by offering a counter view of the country that underscores its vibrant and positively transformative qualities. The celebration of Eastern culture and religion in Frembgen's travel writing indicates the need for the re-examination of the Orientalist thought that has, wittingly or unwittingly, dismissed a significant segment of western works about the east in order to legitimize its theoretical and hypothetical cases.

Sufism and Politics: Internalization of Political Piety in Young Sufi in Indonesia

“…History proves that the Muslims represented by these Sufis are the most tolerant, inclusive, sympathetic and friendly group to other religions (Solares, 2019). Sufism has contributed greatly to the development of moderate, inclusive and peaceful attitudes (Pourgharib et al, 2022).…”

Cultural Translation, Hybrid Identity, and Third Space in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

“…The development of diasporic cultures as a result of transnational migrations has undermined essentialist ideologies by contesting the homogenizing perceptions of identity and culture as fixed and static entities Kuortti & Nyman, 2007;Pourgharib et al, 2022). In his seminal book The Location of Culture (1994), Homi K. Bhabha argues for the productive nature of this cultural encounter, asserting that the confrontation of the two cultures of the homeland and the host country entails the formation of a hybrid identity that constantly deconstructs and reconstructs itself.…”