Noticing the importance of the fact that there is a growing interest in oriental countries and
cultures Hasan Baktir studies in his book the representation of the Ottoman Orient in 18th
century English literature. He claims that a comprehensive understanding of the representation
of the Ottoman Orient requires a new perspective therefore he investigates different aspects
of the interaction between the Ottoman Orient and 18th century Europe. A number of questions
continue to arise in the wake of Said s 1978 landmark study Orientalism. How monodirectional
was the flow of power in such representations? To what extent did the travelling observer also
participate and become influenced by the phenomena he tried to depict without attachment? What
variety of motivations lay behind the desire to know and represent the Oriental other was it
simply a question of political control? Or were there deeper more enigmatic factors at play
sexuality existential affirmation even utter idiosyncrasy? How various and diverse was the
Western response to the East can we discern degrees of sympathy knowledge and difference in
the various Orients offered to us by the canonical and non-canonical figures of 18th century
English letters? Baktir s study provides answers to many aspects of these questions through a
detailed examination of very different texts. Baktir does not completely reject Said s argument
that European writers created a separate discourse to represent the Orient rather he shows us
that there was also a dialogic and negotiating tendency which did not make a radical
distinction between the East and the West. Relying his argument on 18th century pseudo-oriental
letters oriental tales and oriental travelogues Baktir demonstrates that the representation
of the Ottoman Orient in 18th century English literature differs essentially from earlier
centuries because a developing critical and liberal spirit established a negotiation between
the two worlds. In his study he indicates how the critical and inquisitive spirit of the age of
Enlightenment interanimated Oriental and European cultures.
