A Spanish gaze: Vicente Blasco Ibanez's Oriente (1907)

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1295903 (Table of Contents)

There were many Anglo-Saxon travelers on the Ottoman lands however the Spaniards remained limited between 18th and 20th centuries. Vicente Blasco Ibañez was a Spanish traveler who visited Istanbul in 1907 and captured his experiences in a travel account named Oriente (Orient) which was published in the same year. This study explores the travel and travel account of Vicente Blasco Ibañez with regard to the image of the Turks. In order to understand Ibañez's account it is necessary to understand the 19th century Spanish travel writing literature, Spain and the relations between the Spanish and the Ottoman Empires at the turn of the 20th century. The present thesis proposes that Spain and Vicente Blasco Ibañez in particular were peculiar cases. Historically Spain had a different place among the European states as an empire and as a people which at certain points posed similarities to the Ottoman Empire. Vicente Blasco Ibañez's perspective on the Turks reveals that he was also different from other Spanish travelers who traveled to the 'Orient'. The present thesis argues that apart from the colorful life of Vicente Blasco Ibañez factors such as Spain's familiarity with Islam, Spain's position within Europe, the crisis of identity in 1898 and the Spanish Orientalism in relation to the crisis were influential in the formation of Blasco Ibañez's Spanish gaze. In this context, the study tries to analyze various images and the discourse in the travel account and identify their connection with writer's motivations.