Richard Burton in Arabia

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how a study of the significance of Richard Burton's disguise in his "Personal Narrative of A Pilgrimage to al-Medina and Meccah" has implications for both an assessment of his success in his examination of the people he encounters and of his ability to use this disguise as a means of learning by complete immersion. It looks at how his eagerness to perfect this "cultural transvestism" which he had employed previously in his travels was partly fueled by his desire to examine and map for the Western reader. It also discusses how the objectivity which Burton's disguise affords him is undermined by his fundamental colonial superiority.

From the Paper:

"Burton's disguise affords him an omnipotence which lends itself to an reaffirmation of his assumed Western superiority over the natives. Firstly, he presupposes, with no moral reservations, a right to imitate the Arabs, to deceive them in order to infiltrate their most revered pilgrimage, and to accept their help and friendship. Secondly, he takes advantage of his ingrained superiority in the very act of "going native" and receiving wisdom from his experience with the Arabs. An Arab would never be able to enjoy the same kind of teaching from a European, learning through living on a European level. Indeed, the Arab could not "go civilized" in direct opposition to the European "going native." Burton is able to gain a measure of knowledge of the Arabs which they would not be able to match in terms of knowledge of the Europeans."

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