En mangfoldighed af spejle: Europa og modernitet i rejselitteratur fra Asien og Afrika

Resumé

This paper explores some ways of understanding ‘Europe’ through a reading of selected travel texts written by non-Europeans. In particular, I focus on three texts written by Indians who travelled to Europe and England between 1750 and 1900, though there are also references to other travel accounts. The main argument of this paper is that such accounts complicate any given definition of ‘Europe’ as well as the values and assumptions of certain usages of terms like ‘Europeanness’, ‘modernity’ and ‘science’. The non-European travel texts show a consciousness of ‘difference’ and can at times contain elements of cultural essentialism, but they do not display a simplistic opposition to ‘Europe’ or the cultural products commonly associated, rightly or wrongly, with Europe.