The Quest for Otherness as a Step to Awareness
The Quest for Otherness as a Step to Awareness

Henry Russell’s travels to Asia

Author(s): Françoise Besson
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Art; Asia; awareness; colonization; mountains; nature; Henry Russell-Killough
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this essay is to show how Henry Russell-Killough’s explorations of various parts of the world reveal both his colonizer’s perception and his awareness of the biased perception of Europeans towards those they did not know, particularly Asians. This paper explores his travels to Asia, through two series of narratives: a series of articles in English published in an Indian paper, "The Englishman", between October 1860 and January 1861, and a book in French, "Seize mille lieues à travers l’Asie et l’Océanie" (1866). The articles were aimed at English readers living in India, which adds a political dimension to the literary travel narrative. Russell’s stylistic choices, in these texts and others, show that he made the travel narrative a painting of the Other, opening onto future exchanges between Western and Eastern cultures. By insisting on the richness of differences, on the beauty of these geographical areas unknown to most of the world at the time, on the artistic talent of Asian people, he also opened European eyes onto Eastern beauty and future exchanges between the West and the East.

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