Literary transfers between the Orient and the West, 17th–20th century
Résumé
This article re-examines one of the aesthetic foundations of orientalist discourse. It focuses on the circulation of literary themes, techniques and motifs between Europe and Arab Muslim countries prior to the historical structuring of knowledge built up by Enlightenment Europe into a network of images and representations which could be used in support of colonial ambitions. We illustrate the degree to which the content of this discourse hinges on European nations’ desire to obscure certain cultural phenomena which often emerged from philosophical or artistic ideas common to these two strategically opposed spaces.