‘The otherness’: a comparative discourse on volney’s voyage and alberto pasini’s memories of the orient

In the Introduction to his landmark study, Orientalism, Edward Said stated that the origins of Western discourse around Middle East culture should be traced back to the final years of the 18th century; consequently, the scholar not only dedicated scarce attention to the writings of the main representatives of the Enlightenment, but misinterpreted the thought of Constantin- Francois de Chasseboeuf de Volney as well as the main tenets of his Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie (1787), simplistically dismissed as the basis of Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt. A new discourse around the metamorphoses of Volney’s legacy throughout the XIXth century could be centered on the visual representation of the Orient made by the Italian painter Alberto Pasini (1826-1899).