The Age of Discoveries and Patriotism: James Darmesteter's Assessment of French Orientalism

✍ Scribed by Michel Gardaz

• Book ID: 102620761
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 132 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0048-721X
• DOI: 10.1006/reli.2000.0287

✦ Synopsis

The rapid development of Orientalism in the nineteenth century played a fundamental role in the expansion of our prior conceptions of various religious traditions. In this article, I will analyse James Darmesteter's assessment of the development of French Orientalism. He discussed this issue in his Essais orientaux (1883a). First, I will describe the discoveries mentioned by Darmesteter. Second, I will highlight his comments about the contributions of French scholars to the development of orientalism. Finally, I will analyse the relation between the Franco-German War (1870-71) and Darmesteter's Essais. The article will show that the military vocabulary used by Darmesteter is a clear indication of the impact of the war on his writing.