The Poetics and Politics of Bayard Taylor’s The Lands of the Saracen and Poems of the Orient
Keywords:
Bayard Taylor, travel writing, American imperialism, Constantinople, religious difference, antebellum AmericaAbstract
This article analyzes Bayard Taylor's mid-nineteenth-century travelogues and poems, focusing on his portrayal of Constantinople and the broader Middle East. The author contends that Taylor's work exemplifies the conflation of imperial I/eye, employing tropes of surveillance, aestheticization, and appropriation to describe his interactions with foreign places. This study examines how Taylor's writings reflect the broader cultural and political context of American imperialism, particularly in the antebellum period. The paper explores the significance of religious difference as a vehicle for establishing an authentically American identity. Through a close reading of The Lands of the Saracen and Poems of the Orient, this work investigates how Taylor's descriptions of Constantinople contribute to a discursive orientation for Western travelers. The article demonstrates that Taylor's travel writing is situated within the matrix of imperialism, linking culture, politics, and economy.(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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