Orientalism and Its Elements in English Travelogues from the 18th Century about the Ottoman Empire and the Countries of the Middle East

(In English) This bachelor's thesis focuses on the analysis of orientalist elements in selected 18th-century English travel writings. It employs the theoretical framework of Edward Said, as outlined in his work Orientalism (1978), to uncover the ways in which authors such as Mary Wortley Montagu, Elizabeth Craven, James Bruce, and Richard Pococke constructed the image of the Orient, particularly the Ottoman Empire. The travel accounts are examined as texts that, through generalization, exoticization, cultural hierarchization, and ethnographization, depict the Orient as a culturally and morally inferior space. The authors employed methods of descriptive classification, linguistic contrasts, and symbolic simplification, often positioning the Orient in opposition to Western values. The findings of the thesis demonstrate that these travelogues served not only as sources of information about distant lands but also as tools of ideological representation that contributed to the shaping of European identity through the construction of cultural otherness.