Description: Viewing Europe from the Outside reexamines the narrative portrayal of cultural encounters between East and West in English and French Orientalist discourse. It focuses, in particular, on the eighteenth-century satirical travel account and the nineteenth-century literary travelogue. Through a close reading of five texts, it defines the monological, dialogical, and parodic uses of the Other as three forms of encounters that both provide structure for and participate in a self-reflective culture critique.
Review Quotes: «Syrine Chafic Hout's book is an innovative, fresh look at the way eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European travelers, fabulists, and moralists viewed the Orient, and themselves, in variously complicated relationships. This is a genuinely learned, insightful work of cultural history and humanistic analysis: a pleasure to read, and a work that is admirable in its range and power.» (Edward W. Said, Columbia University)