عنوان

Saudi Arabia in the German-speaking imagination: Identity, space and representation

TL48781

انگلیسی

Saudi Arabia in the German-speaking imagination: Identity, space and representation

[Thesis]

Antonella Cassia

Kosta, Barbara

The University of Arizona

2016

189

Committee members: Hudson, Leila; Martinson, Steven

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-73710-2

Ph.D.

German Studies

The University of Arizona

2016

This research aims to explore how representations of Saudi Arabia in German travel literature, pilgrimage accounts and online media have transformed the Saudi Arabian space and its place in the European imagination. German travelers, pilgrims, and expatriates enter the foreign Saudi Arabian space, and decipher it in their narratives. The diachronic analysis of several representative texts by German authors from the 18^th and 19^th centuries narrating their journey to what is today known as Saudi Arabia, shows that the images conveyed in their writings should be conceived in a multidimensional way beyond the lens of historical analysis, taking into account notions of gender, personal motivations, nationality and religion. Analysis of pilgrimage accounts by German converts from the 20^th and 21^st century reveals an unreflected representation of Western societies and German people in the Middle East. These narratives play a fundamental role in building a bridge connecting Muslim immigrants living in the diaspora with German converts. However, to quote Marcia Hermansen (1999) "even though Western Muslim narrators avoid the excesses of their Christian precursors, they are not completely free from a colonial gaze and "Orientalist" attitudes": in their narratives both the desert and the Bedouins become an imagined and fictionalized trope. In the last part of my dissertation I explore the blogosphere produced by German expatriates living in Saudi Arabia, arguing that expatriate blogs have become a space for cultural representation and othering, that share similarities with the genre of travel writing.

Germanic literature; Religion; Diaspora; Blogs; Narratives; Space; Cultural identity; Language culture relationship; Eye movements; Immigrants; Historical text analysis; Middle Eastern studies; German; Language history; Attitudes; Otherness

Language, literature and linguistics;Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Asad, Muhammad;Blogs;Conversion to Islam;German travelers;Pilgrimage narratives;Saudi arabia

Jalalzai, Sajida

Kosta, Barbara

German Studies

The University of Arizona

1797442258; 10110465

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y