European perceptions of religion and society in 18th-century China & Bengal, and their subverted gaze in local art and encounter

This essay presents two late 18th century European travelers' encounters with and perceptions of religion in Chinese and Indian societies. While C.L.J De Guignes made an extensive tour of Chinese pagodas, Balthazar Solvyns was depicting Bengali people in 1794. Both traveler's works reveal...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: De Winter, Wim (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Routledge [2020]
Dans: Religion
Année: 2020, Volume: 50, Numéro: 2, Pages: 278-298
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Guignes, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de 1759-1845 / China / Religion / Solvyns, Balthazar 1760-1824 / Bengalis / Hindouisme / Récit de voyages / Orientalisme (Sciences culturelles) / Exotisme
RelBib Classification:AG Vie religieuse
BK Hindouisme
BL Bouddhisme
BM Religions chinoises
KBM Asie
Sujets non-standardisés:B De Guignes
B Solvyns
B Bengal
B China
B Orientalism
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Résumé:This essay presents two late 18th century European travelers' encounters with and perceptions of religion in Chinese and Indian societies. While C.L.J De Guignes made an extensive tour of Chinese pagodas, Balthazar Solvyns was depicting Bengali people in 1794. Both traveler's works reveal a lineage of ideas involving exoticism and early-modern orientalism. While creating images of religion based on superstition and alterity, they did not take into account how the gaze was reversed unto them. While Solvyns created images of ‘the Hindoos', Bengali artists were depicting the European colonial presence in scroll paintings and temple sculptures. These depictions may be considered as mimetic practices subverting the relational gaze, incorporating the European presence in order to overcome it. Contrasting early ethnographical European descriptions of Asian religions with their original contexts, a subverted gaze shines back upon the self-image of early modern European scholars seeking to make exotic Asian religions ‘known'.
ISSN:1096-1151
Contient:Enthalten in: Religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2020.1713518