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Harems, Orientalist subversions and the crisis of nationalism: the case of Edgar Allan Poe and 'Ligeia.'

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From: Criticism
Date: 19950922
Author:Schueller, Malini Johar

Edgar Allan Poe's 'Legeia' is one of his numerous works which reveal his fascination for the Orient. However, in a period when the US's national identity was closely linked to internal and external colonialism, Poe's short story subverts this political stance, parodying the Orientalist discourse which is also, not coincidentally, a sexual discourse. Legeia's characterization is clearly the Orient's, that is, as constructed by the Western (male) gaze. But Legeia becomes more than the Orientalist's gendered construct of the East. By bonding/transforming Legeia with Rowena, the discoursive level ...

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