Under the sign of Orientalism: Travel comradeship in A Relíquia by Eça de Queirós

Abstract

After the Napoleonic campaign into Egypt (1798–1801), the «temptation of the Orient» hit the Western world, leaving eloquent expressions in its artistic manifestations. Eça de Queirós, in the path of many other European scholars, was not immune to this movement. He himself made the oriental journey and left of it abundant reminiscences in his literary production. The dea of travel comradeship present in A Relíquia, through the Portuguese character Teodorico and the German Topsius, derives of a 1800’s cultural habit well attested in the last decades of the 19th century whereupon Eça himself participated. In Eça’s critical plot, the literary game of contrasts between the two men and their worlds is much accentuated and, through several episodes and adventures, the author reveals his anti-German sentiment, an impression that he inherited from the French culture and mentality which he profoundly adopted.