Consuming the Orient

From travel posters to cigarette packs, from postcards to ornaments, from advertisements to comic strips, the Orient has often been turned by the West into yet another commodity for mass consumption. A closer look at the way in which the Orient was represented in western consumer societies reveals a number of images and stereotypes revolving around four major themes : exoticism, ethnography, eroticism, and history. From the late nineteenth century to our times, these images have greatly evolved, from rough clichés to more neutral visions. Nevertheless, the attraction exerted by the Orient on the greater public continues unabated, even in Turkey, where almost two centuries of westernization has ended up creating the very particular phenomenon of « oriental orientalism. »