Charles D. Sabatos, Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature

Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature by Charles D. Sabatos traces the image of the Turk in works of Central European literatures that were written in different languages such as Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian from the early modern period to the present day. Sabatos employs the concept of “frontier Orientalism” to trace “[t] he evolution of the Turkish image from a historic threat to a mythical figure” and notes that this evolution played a key role in “the complex construction of modern European identities” (xii). The book is pertinent not only for specialists of Central European literatures but also for historians who work on sources that display complex transcultural relationships such as travel writings. Sabatos’s focus on the Central Europe challenges much of the scholarly assumptions on the West that have often shaped earlier works on travel writing in Ottoman and Turkish studies. In particular, Frontier Orientalism demonstrates how current works on Orientalism sometimes generate a simplistic “West vs. Rest” dichotomy. Furthermore, Sabatos’s work provides crucial remarks about the discipline of history as his work builds upon literary critics such as Hayden White who have reflected on the nature of history writing. After providing a brief summary of the book and discussing its contributions to diverse disciplines, this review will end with discussion of the new avenues of research that Sabatos’s book opens up and other researchers can further explore in detail.