[Bilimsel Haber] Bk rev.: _Orientalism's Interlocutors_

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Jill Beaulieu and Mary Roberts, eds. Orientalism's Interlocutors: Painting,
Architecture, Photography. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. ix + 227 pp.
Illustrations, plans, index. $79.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-8223-2859-3; $22.95 
(paper),
ISBN 0-8223-2874-7.

Reviewed by: Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier, Harriman Institute, Columbia 
University.
Published by: H-Gender-MidEast (December, 2005)

A Trope of One's Own

This collection of essays challenges the accepted wisdom that Orientalism
expresses the politics of Western domination. As the book's title 
indicates, it
treats visual representation of the Orient not as a one-sided 
relationship but
as a dialogue. More than that, it also deepens, or "triangulates," our
understanding of the complexities of cross-cultural encounters by relying on
recent post-colonial and gender studies.

The first section presents the Orient's contribution. Zeynep Celik 
discusses how
a Turkish painter, a Sultan's photo album, and a Moroccan architect defined
their own independent identities and challenged Western stereotypes. Roger
Benjamin contrasts two Algerian painters: one adopted an Occidental 
manner in
his landscapes; the other made use of native tradition, Persian and Mughal
miniatures, to produce an original style. Mark Crinson writes about 
post-World
War II construction of mosques in London as signifying an active Muslim
engagement in spatial politics.

The second part deals with the colonizers' visual representation of the 
Orient.
Deborah Cherry discusses landscape painting by nineteenth-century British
residents in the Maghreb and the degree to which these works expressed 
imperial
control. Hollis Clayton analyzes Henri Regnault's changing representation of
Oriental masculinity from that of barbaric strength to languid passivity and
relates it to the painter's personal life. Mary Roberts discusses various
ramifications of harem paintings by Western women.

The book contains more than just valuable new information. Due to the
contributors' effort at triangulation, to expand and enrich the duality 
of the
East-West dialogue approach with insights gained from postcolonial 
studies, the
essays also provide novel interpretations as well as revisions. For the most
part, arguments are not presented in simplistic, black and white, terms. 
Instead
the reader is offered insightful interpretations that belie reductionist
conclusions.

A good example of the prevailing tone is offered by Mary Roberts' essay. It
presents Western women's paintings of harems as offering a more accurate,
ethnographic description of a social realm closed to Western male 
artists, whose
idealized depictions reflect male sexual fantasies about indolent 
odalisques.
She also offers the insight that Western women painters operated within a
fantasy trope of their own, influenced as they were by reading The Arabian
Nights. In addition, Robert's essay includes intriguing information 
about the
active role that Oriental women played in shaping their own image. For 
example,
one Ottoman princess insisted that her foreign portraitist paint her not 
in the
traditional Eastern attire but in the latest fashionable Western outfit.

Most authors substantiate their analysis of post-colonial or gender issues
inherent in the representation of the Orient with references to readily 
evident
written or visual material. However, Deborah Cherry's essay on the 
politics of
Maghreb landscape painting by Western women tends to make her point with the
help of excessive quotations from Linda Nochlin, Jacques Derrida, and Homi
Bhabha. As far as this reviewer is concerned, the former method of 
presentation
is more useful for teaching purposes than the latter.


Citation: Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier. "Review of Jill Beaulieu and Mary 
Roberts,
eds, Orientalism's Interlocutors: Painting, Architecture, Photography,"

Copyright © 2006 by H-Net, all rights reserved.



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