The Great Japanese Empire in Alma Karlin 's travel diaries

Abstract

The literary and other heritage of the Celje intellectual and traveler Alma M. Karlin has attracted considerable attention over the last two decades. Researchers praise the anti–parochialism and determination that she exercised in pursuit of her goals, qualities that few of us possess today, despite all our technical aids. Often emphasized is her fascination with Japan, which to her indeed represented her locus amoenus. The article tries to put into context her travel diaries about this country, which in her time still qualified as an empire. Since Karlin is sometimes, though not frequently, reproached with a negative attitude towards the indigenous people “living beyond the Seven Seas”, the main aim will be to find out where and how her image of the colonized Other in the Great Japanese Empire originated.