Travelogue writing and redefinition of Iranian identity in cultural collision with the West

Document Type : مروری

Abstract

Travelogues, with whatever intention they are written, are a potential possibility for creating cultural understanding between nations. In these texts, two cultures face each other openly and covertly, and in the communication process of the individual and collective "I" of a culture, they recognize themselves in the mirror of "Others" and continuously form their own "identity". We know that the Iranian identity has been subject to metamorphosis and shedding its skin in the very ancient times and has undergone changes in the collision with different cultures.After the arrival of Islam and in a period of almost two centuries, the Iranian and Islamic identity achieved such a brilliant reconciliation and solidarity that it was able to bring forth a valuable civilization. But after the Mongol attack, this civilization lost its strength and did not come out of its long slumber until it encountered the nascent western civilization. The violent confrontation of the Iranian society with the tsarist Russia challenged the identity and civilization of Iran again and created the traces of identity in the personality of the elites and a little later in the people. In order to overcome this crisis, the recognition of the "Other" became very important and opened the door of relations between Iranians and Europeans. The journey and direct experience of this emerging culture brought travelers from different classes to that country and recording what they saw, heard and read created many texts under the title of "Travelouge". During these texts, we witness the redefinition of Iranian identity; In such a way that the privileges of Islamic and Iranian culture are tried to be protected from harm as much as possible, and on the other hand, the privileges of the new European culture are also taken enough advantage of. It seems that travelogues have played a significant role in redefining and rebuilding the new Iranian identity in the field of intellectual, cultural, social, linguistic, and literary identity, and they are the initiators of many modern topics and topics in Iran.

Keywords