Les Lettres orientales de Ida von Hahn-Hahn : un Baedeker pour le Moyen-Orient

This article deals with the published Oriental Letters by Ida von Hahn-Hahn (1844) after her return from a long journey she undertook through the Middle East with her then companion, Adolf Baron Bystram, from 1843 to 1844. Like the first tourist guide (such as the Baedeker, first published in 1835) which sought to provide varied information on local history and monuments, Hahn-Hahn tries to inform her readers about everyday things while keeping the spectacle as spectacular as an archetypical position. Something more important though seems to be at stake for Hahn-Hahn during her travel. Far from discovering the Orient, she situates herself within a well established tradition whereby she reinvents the places she visits before reinventing herself after a period of void towards the end of her expedition during which she fell silent.