Explorations in George Eliot’s Perception of Islam: Arabs, Moors, Muslims, and Islam in The Spanish Gypsy
Mots-clés :
G. Eliot, victorien, islam, gitan espagnol, AndalousieRésumé
Cet article propose d'explorer la perception que George Eliot a de l'islam et des musulmans dans The Spanish Gypsy (1868). Il soutient qu'Eliot a montré des préjugés contre cette religion et ses adeptes au moment où elle écrivait ce poème. Cela sera démontré par son utilisation d'une caractérisation raciale typiquement stéréotypée et d'une iconographie religieuse ostentatoire persistante dans un contexte narratif exacerbé par la violence et la cruauté, comme le montre l'histoire du poème se déroulant dans la guerre sainte d'al-Andalus (Espagne mauresque) au XVe siècle. . Afin de déterminer clairement l'attitude d'Eliot envers les musulmans en tant qu'étrangers, l'article explorera et comparera également son point de vue avec d'autres communautés ethniques et religieuses impliquées dans le cours historique des événements décrits dans le poème, notamment les gitans, les juifs et les chrétiens.
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. Ahmad ibn Mohammed al-Makkari was born in Tlemcen in 1577 (referred to as Telemsan in both Gayango’s translation and George Eliot’s The Spanish Gypsy) and died in Cairo in 1632. His History of al-Andalus or Moorish Spain was originally entitled Nafh al-tib min ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib. Its Arabic version was printed in eight volumes in Beirut, Lebanon in 1968.
. When Eliot was questioned about her use of the term “Andalus” for “Andalusia” she replied that she “had a sufficient authority for that in the Mohammedan Dynasties, translated by Gayangos.” (Life & Letters 526)
. Eliot apparently makes anachronistic reference to the Turk in the poem when she writes: “The sacred places shall be purged again, / The Turk converted” (TSG 7).
. In “Notes on The Spanish Gypsy” Eliot explains both her interest in and sympathy for people born with “the commonest inherited misfortunes” (Life & Letters 510), such as Gypsies: “Love, pity, constituting sympathy, and generous joy with regard to the lot of our fellow men, comes … enormously enhanced … by an imagination actively interested in the lot of mankind generally” (Life & Letters 511).
. Blood, in The Spanish Gypsy, is used as a symbol of both violence and race. As a universal symbol of racial ties within a community, Eliot indistinctly uses it for Christians, Jews, Gypsies and Muslims alike.
. Nancy Henry does not miss the point when she writes: “There is irony in romanticizing and ennobling the conflict of races in Moorish Spain and the heroism of the warrior Gypsies after denying Thornie’s wish to fight for the Poles and minimizing his engagement with the Basutos” in Africa where he settled with his brother as colonists (176).
. As Eliot herself admits when she wrote to her friend Bodichon about her visit to Spain in 1867: “Perhaps if I had been in Africa, I should say as you do that the country reminded me of Africa: as it is, I think of all I have read about the East” (Life & Letters 490).
Works Cited
Al-Makkari. The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. Vol. 2. Trans. Pascual De Gayangos. London: W. Hughes, 1843.
Borrow, George. The Zincali; or An Account of the Gypsies of Spain. Philadelphia: J. M. Campbell & Co., 1843.
Carroll, Alicia. “ ‘Arabian Nights’: ‘Make-Believe,’ Exoticism, and Desire in Daniel Deronda.” JEGP, Journal of English and Germanic Philosophy April 1999 98:219-38.
Charnon-Deutsch, Lou. The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession. Penn State Press, 2004.
Cross, J. W., ed. The Works of George Eliot: Life and Letters. N.Y: The University Society Publishers, 1884.
Eliot, George. “Evenings in My Tent.” Rev. of Evenings in My Tent; or, Wanderings in Balad Ejjareed, Illustrating the Moral, Religious, Social and Political Conditions of Various Arab Tribes of the African Sahara, by N. Davis. The Leader 8 April 1854: 330-31.
---. The Spanish Gypsy. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1868.
Flesler, Daniela. The Return of the Moor: Spanish Responses to Contemporary Moroccan Immigration. Purdue U P, 2008.
Henry, Nancy. The Life of George Eliot: A Critical Biography. West Sussex: J. Willey & Sons, 2012.
Knox, Robert. The Races of Men: A Fragment. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1850.
Kurnick, David. “Unspeakable George Eliot.” Victorian Literature and Culture 38.2 (2010): 489-509.
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© Revue des Sciences Humaines 2023
Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
