LOUIS DE FORBIN’S JOURNEY TO EGYPT: THE REMAKING OF FRANCE’S CULTURAL AUTHORITY AND VISUAL EMPIRE AFTER 1815

Öz

Bu makale, Louis de Forbin’in Voyage dans le Levant (1817-1818) adlı eserinin Mısır bölümünü inceleyerek, Mısır antikalarının on dokuzuncu yüzyılın başlarında nasıl kültürel temellük nesnelerine dönüştürüldüğünü analiz etmektedir. Voyage’ı yalnızca sanatsal bir seyahat anlatısı olarak ele alan okumaların ötesine geçerek, Forbin’in misyonunun, Restorasyon dönemi Fransası’nın 1815 sonrası kültürel otoritesini yeniden inşa etmeyi amaçlayan işlevsel bir altyapı içinde konumlandığını ileri sürmektedir. Makale, kültürel temellük sürecinin münferit toplama eylemleri yoluyla değil, Mehmed Ali Paşa yönetimi altındaki kalibre edilmiş egemenlik, Fransız-İngiliz rekabeti ve çok katmanlı aracı ağlar tarafından yapılandırılan ortaklaşa üretilmiş bir sistem içinde ortaya çıktığını göstermektedir. Bu çerçevede, aracı aktörler diplomatik otorite, yerel emek, aracılık pratikleri ve gayriresmî piyasalar arasında işleyen farklı düzlemler üzerinden kavramsallaştırılmaktadır. Anlatısal ve görsel pratikler, metinsel betimleme ile görsel belgelemenin birlikte Mısır’ın maddi geçmişine ilişkin iddiaları sabitleyen tekil bir epistemik altyapı oluşturduğu bir bütün olarak ele alınmaktadır. Forbin’in Mısır yolculuğunu bu birbirine bağlı altyapılar içinde konumlandırarak, makale Voyage dans le Levant’ı seyahat, temsil ve kurumsal hırsın kesiştiği; antikaların metropol merkezli kültürel sermayeye dönüştürülmesini mümkün kılan bir mekanizma olarak yeniden değerlendirmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Louis de Forbin
• Louvre Müzesi
• Kültürel Temellük
• Fransız-İngiliz Rekabeti
• Doğu Akdeniz
• Görsel İmparatorluk

LOUIS DE FORBIN’S JOURNEY TO EGYPT: THE REMAKING OF FRANCE’S CULTURAL AUTHORITY AND VISUAL EMPIRE AFTER 1815

Öz

This article examines the Egyptian section of Louis de Forbin’s Voyage dans le Levant (1817-1818) to show how antiquities were transformed into instruments of state-sponsored cultural appropriation in the early nineteenth century. Moving beyond readings of the Voyage as an artistic travelogue, it argues that Forbin’s mission functioned as an operational extension of Restoration France’s effort to reconstruct cultural authority after 1815. Cultural appropriation, the article demonstrates, did not occur through isolated acts of collecting but through a co-produced infrastructure shaped by Franco-British rivalry, Mehmed Ali Pasha’s calibrated sovereignty, and layered intermediary networks linking diplomatic authority, provincial administration, local labor, brokerage, and informal markets. Central to this process was the fusion of narrative and visual practices. Textual description and visual documentation operated together as an epistemic infrastructure through which claims to Egypt’s material past were stabilized, circulated, and institutionalized. By situating Forbin’s Egyptian journey within these intersecting political, visual, and institutional frameworks, the article reframes Voyage dans le Levant as a mechanism that brought together travel, representation, and museum ambition to produce France’s post-Napoleonic visual empire.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Louis de Forbin
• Louvre Museum
• Cultural Appropriation
• Franco-British Rivalry
• Eastern Mediterranean
• Visual Empire

Kaynakça

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