The stereotypization of the “Other” in an illustrated tourist travelogue of colonized Algeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-4867.v36pe025011Keywords:
Tourist occupation, Culture, History of tourismAbstract
The brutal process of colonization in North Africa, implemented by the French in the 19th century, paradoxically spurred the opening of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia to tourism. In France during the period, circulated numerous touristic travelogues that portrayed the inhabitants of the colonized territories as picturesque and exotic, but simultaneously as barbaric, apathetic, and bestial. In this paper, we present an analysis of the touristic illustrated travelogue L’Algérie contemporaine illustrée, or The Illustrated Contemporary Algeria, written by Baroness Mary Elizabeth Herbert, and published in Paris in 1881. We have a dual objective with this essay: on one hand, to enlighten the reader about the brutal process of invasion, domination, and exploitation, including tourism, of Algeria, as well as to elucidate how prejudice against the Other, the colonized, is present in the touristic illustrated travelogues of travelers who visited Algeria in the second half of the 19th century. To achieve this purpose, we employed different research methods, including the study of primary period sources (texts and images), as well as the careful reading of current sources as a theoretical basis for reflection.
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