Journeys That Go Nowhere: Eurocentric Prejudice and the Refusal to Hear

Abstract

This chapter draws attention to a parallel between European reactions to travel and ethnographic literature about “Other” people in the eighteenth century and similar themes in contemporary Western discourses. It points out that in earlier centuries European travellers to Asia and Africa often painted surprisingly positive portraits of the cultures they encountered, while criticising the assumptions and behaviour of their own nations, but that such perspectives were deliberately marginalised. The assertion of Eurosupremacism that this marginalisation reveals is still with us. A striking example can be seen in some of the changes made to Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love, in the film version starring Julia Roberts. These changes project audiences who will be pleased by narratives affirming the moral superiority of their culture over that of nations like India and Bali, and pleased also by the sensation of rescuing helpless women oppressed by the cruel patriarchal practices of these unenlightened nations.