Islam and Romantic Orientalism: Literary Encounters with the Orient

This debate on Orientalism looks at some of the main literary texts of the Romantic movement explored in Edward Said’s classic work. The author acknowledges wide areas of truth in Said’s thesis; however, he argues that in the work of Southey, Byron, Moore and Landor, who began their careers under the sign of the French Revolution and declared their independence both from political tyrrany and from national self-satisfaction, the world of Islam appears not just as a antithesis to the world of European civilization but as an alternative cultural reality with its own values.