A imagological study of Mashhad in Henry Rene D’ALLEMAGNE’s travelogue entitled from Khorasan to Bakhtiari

Comparative literature is a science that deals with the history of international literary relations and is able to bring the two countries closer through some sort of national psychoanalysis. In the meantime, travelogues are one of the most important sociology references and components of literary universalism through which we can gain a clear image of the conditions that existed in communities of “the Self” and “the Other”. Among the western travelers who have traveled to Iran so far, Henry René D’ALLMAGNE is one of the few French travelers who visited Khorasan province of Iran in the 20th century and presented a macro imagological research from Mashhad and its inhabitants in his travelogue entitled from Khorasan to Bakhtiari. This research as a branch of comparative literature survey examines the image of foreign countries and personalities, in particular, by an imagology approach of an author’s works, or an era or school in its context. It intends to answer the two questions by analytical-descriptive method as follows: what images of Mashhad has Henry René D’ALLEMAGNE represented for the readers? and what effect has the traveler conception had on its transferring mode? The results of this research showed that the narratives of this tourist are related to the topics of weather conditions, urban planning, architecture of places, post office, transportation conditions, industry, economy, security, politics, beliefs, culture, customs, and people's habits and the tourist intends to illustrate (positively, negatively, and neutrally) the contrast between 'European self' and 'Eastern Other'.
Keywords: Comparative Literature, Itinerary, Henry René D’ALLEMAGNE, Mashhad, Imagology, The self and the other