During the Enlightenment and the Romantic periods numerous travelers went to the Spanish Levant to search for adventure and to acquaint themselves with its people and its culture. With the passage of time, the Industrial Revolution, the advent of railways, and the growth of the cities, these voyagers developed a utilitarian point of view, and in their writings they emphasized the progress they observed more than the exotic flavour they had been looking for in the Spanish Mediterranean lands. This study examines the evolution of the local landscape as observed by the travelers who visited the Spanish Levant, and whose cultural ideology and religious beliefs often influenced their perceptions.
Foreigners and Spaniards alike coincided in associating the identity of the region’s inhabitants with that of the African Moors, who occupied it for eight centuries and thus were their historical ancestors. For Edward Said this distinction between “the Orient” and “the Occident”, that he calls “Orientalism”, is a sign of European power over the Orient, as the West defines itself against the East, thus establishing a sort of surrogate and even underground self. In fact, these travel accounts reveal instances of what Mary Louise Pratt calls “the reciprocal vision” that makes visitors and natives who lack a basic knowledge of each other’s culture, see each other as threats. Thus, on the one hand, there were foreign travelers who conceived of Valencians as dangerous and cruel, and on the other, some travelers were taken by the natives for Frenchmen and potential spies.
I based the present study on the literary and graphic testimonies left by these travelers, which allowed me to study their reactions and follow the development of their thought over the years. As Mary Campbell points out, the travel book is influenced by the circumstances of its writer and the experiences that form its subject, and these testimonies reflect the ideology and aesthetic values of the Enlightenment, of the Romantics and, by the end of the 19th century, of realistic Europe. In this work I show how the works of these travelers contributed to dispel erroneous ideas and prejudices.