'Den schrokkenden aard der Mooren'

De oriëntalistische dimensie in Nederlandse slavernijverhalen over Marokko in de achttiende eeuw

Samenvatting

Since its inception in 1978, Edward Said’s Orientalism has continued to play a pivotal role in historiographical debates. One hotly contested issue is the question of whether one can speak of ‘Orientalist’ modes of thinking before the dawn of the age of modern imperialism in the nineteenth century. This article analyses five Dutch captivity narratives from the eighteenth century, set in Morocco. It questions in how far Dutch captives made use of typical Orientalist and essentialist tropes when describing their land of captivity. Basic features of the Orientalist framework, such as "stupidity", "unreliability", "laziness", and "despotism" come to the fore. These features provide a solid basis to argue that, even before the age of modern imperialism, a comparable discourse surrounding the Eastern, Islamic ‘Other’ had taken root.