The construction of the Orient in Romanticism is particularly important because this literary period (approximately 1780-1830) coincides with the era of Empire expansion. Having lost the American colonies, in the 1778 revolution, Britain turned her imperial ambitions eastwards. The East provided rich pickings, both materially and culturally, including the discovery and translation of Ancient scripts that led to an Oriental renaissance. Sir William Jones was at the forefront of the new scholarly movement, devoting a great deal of time to the translation of Oriental poetry to import its imagery and style into Europe. Through his extensive lingual studies, Jones also discovered that Greek, Latin and Germanic languages had similarities with classical Indian Sanskrit, all of which were derived from one common ancestor; an Ancient Persian language no longer used (Bygrave, 1996, p233). Likewise, Jones suggested that European nations should look beyond Rome and Athens, towards the ancient Oriental civilizations to discover their origins and indeed the genesis of mankind (Bygrave, p233). European self-image was thus challenged by the Orient’s claim, and we find that the responses were complex and often contradictory; a conflict of attraction and fear, which had more to do with the culture of the Occident, than the reality of the Orient.
Orientalism is essentially the Western image of the East, (by Western or European I am here referring to British and French opinion as these two Nations were intimately concerned with the colonization of the East). At this point in history there were two distinct constructs and depending on one’s point of view Orientalism could be seen as attractive and liberating, or dangerous and degenerative. This conflict is reflected in the ambivalence many Romantic Writers showed towards the Orient. They were fascinated by the Oriental culture, but fearful of contamination from anything foreign. The cultural co...