Tag: Egypt

May 9, 2014

De L’Infini : A Foreigner’s Metaphysics

Book I — Foreigner, There : History of a Political Capture
— Part 1

The fact is undeniable : the earliest communities of what would later be conceived as the Western civilisation are cultures profoundly marked by the event of foreignness.

May 10, 2013

Herodotus, First Orientalist ? – Section 2.2.1
Father of history, father of lie — but fortunately contemporary commentators do not refer to Herodotus’ name only to highlight the lack of rigor, or even the credulousness of the man. His writing and approach to historical recording was a rather large improvement from the logographers or tellers of tales, and even during his lifetime, this was certainly already realized…even during his lifetime…

May 10, 2013

Herodotus, First Orientalist ? – Section 2.2.3
Finding the first Orientalist is a matter of importance. It is aiming at discovering the roots of what became later a major part of world history, one that determined world dynamics in the recent centuries and, according to Saïd, still does today as an after-effect of colonialism and in the surviving forms of Orientalism…

May 10, 2013

Two Frenchmen in the Orient – Introduction

There was everywhere amongst Orientalists the ambition to formulate their discoveries, experiences, and insights…

– Edward Said, Orientalism

May 10, 2013

Two Frenchmen in the Orient – Part 1
The genesis of a diary. I did not even look for being a foreigner. The travel as coincidence. No need to repeat that I was not feeling ‘good in my own skin’, as the French formula says…

May 10, 2013

Two Frenchmen in the Orient – Part 3
Since I have been abroad, quite a few travelers have gotten in touch with me. Whether friends who had promised (often in vain) to pay me visit, or complete strangers, they show an enthusiasm that reminds me, not without nostalgia, of my early days here…