Theorizing the otherness of Southeastern Europe in British travel narratives: Orientalism, Balkanism or other?

This article explores the discourses of otherness in South-Eastern Europe by challenging Said’s Orientalism and Todorova’s Balkanism. It delves into cultural stereotypes in the nineteenth century, linking representations of Southeastern Europe, which was called as the European Near East at the time, to colonized subjects like the Irish. The study challenges geographical and racial categorizations, highlighting how power dynamics and class values underpinned narratives of inferiority.