Orientalism as a Regulatory Episteme in William Beckford’s Vathek and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Issam Aldowkat; Haitham Talafha; Othman Ald-Dala’ien; Tamador Abu-Snoubar

doi:10.47012/jjmll.17.3.16

Authors

Issam Aldowkat Department of English Language and Literature, Salt College for Human Sciences, Al-Balqa Applied University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8696-7399
Haitham Talafha Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0249-7554
Othman Ald-Dala’ien Department of English Language and Literature, Salt College for Human Sciences, Al-Balqa Applied University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7653-4728
Tamador Abu-Snoubar Department of English Language and Literature, Salt College for Human Sciences, Al-Balqa Applied University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2689-8205

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47012/jjmll.17.3.16

Abstract

Abstract: The Orientalist engagement of William Beckford’s Vathek and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has already been considered within the same theoretical framework proposed by Edward Said. However, this study aims at deconstructing the epistemic foundation of Orientalism in both works. The creation of Vathek is not simply a conceptualization of a stereotypical figure that replicates typical Orientalized characters. He is rather the product of a fantastic quest that is epistemologically conditioned by overreaching disastrous knowledge. Vathek’s weird world is engineered within an epistemic framework whose discursive foundation can be tracked down in Orientalism. Likewise, the subjection of Victor Frankenstein to Orientalist practices whets his appetite for the type of experimentation whose ambiance is conjured up from the spirit of Orientalized tales like the Nights. Orientalism functions thus as an episteme filtering any ‘dispirited’ scientific objectives and transforming them into distorted fantasies. All in all, the realization of such fantasies and deviant epistemic quests, in both novels, eventually ends up in crafting a deformed artefact that echoes Orientalism itself in the sense that they are both deviant praxis drawn upon eccentric discourse and assumptions.

Keywords: William Beckford, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vathek, Orientalism

Highlights:

1. The paper defines Orientalism as an episteme that informs and shapes the epistemological frameworks of knowledge quests within Vathek, Frankenstein, and beyond (i.e., their writing processes).

2. The paper seeks to demonstrate that Orientalism as displaced in Vathek and Frankenstein produces knowledge quests marked by overreaching unregulated, deviant, and disastrous knowledge.

3. In addition to explicating how Orientalism harbors the epistemological tools that fashion Vathek and Frankenstein enlightened pursuit of knowledge, the paper also discussed delineates how Orientalism simultaneously renders their enlightenment a formidable failure.

4. The paper’s discussion unfolds Orientalism as a transgressive pursuit of knowledge, a form of conquest that results in the production of licentious and monstrous knowledge.

5. The paper opens new horizons in Orientalist studies and expands its scope to incorporate epistemic and intellectual violations and quests within various Western cultural frameworks