Traces of Orientalist Discourse in World War I: Memoirs of Two British War Prisoners on Ottoman Turkey

Abstract

This paper explores the representation of the Ottoman Empire in the memoirs of two English captives - John Still and Harry Coghill Watson Bishop. First, the paper discusses the idea of the orient in European history through Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism. Secondly, this study examines the reflection of the orientalist discourse in Still’s and Bishops’ captivity accounts during World War I when they fought against the Ottoman soldiers. Still participated in World War I and was held as a prisoner of war until the end of the Great War, and during his captivity in Turkey, he kept a record of his observations and feelings about the Ottoman Empire. He published A Prisoner in Turkey as an account of his captivity. On the other hand, Bishop fought in the Kut-Al Amara battles as a second lieutenant in the Indian Army in the early days of the war. He was also taken as a captive on the 29th of April 1916. Through a long journey from Bagdad to Ankara, he reached Kastamonu and stayed there as a prisoner of war for almost two years during which he wrote memoirs about his captivity in Turkey.

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