ǂThe ǂallure of the mystical

East Asian religious traditions in the eyes of Alma M. Karlin

Abstract

Alma M. Karlin (1889–1950), a world traveller and German-language travel and fiction writer, cultivated a keen interest in religious beliefs and practices of the places she visited, believing in the Romantic notion of religion as the distilled soul of nations as well as in the Theosophical presumption that all religions are just particular iterations of an underlying universal truth. For this reason, the topic of religion was central to both her personal and professional identity as an explorer and writer. This article examines her attitudes to East Asian religio-philosophical traditions, by focusing on the two versions of her unpublished manuscript Glaube und Aberglaube im Fernen Osten, which presents an attempt to turn her successful travel writing into an ethnographic text. The content and discourse analyses demonstrate the influence of both comparative religious studies of the late 19th century, and of the newer ethnological approaches from the turn of the century. On the one hand, Karlin adopts the binary opposition of religion (represented by Buddhism, Shintoism, Daoism and Confucianism) or the somewhat more broadly conceived belief, and superstition (e.g. wondering ghosts, fox fairies), and assumes the purity of textual traditions over the lived practices. At the same time, she is fascinated by what she perceives as more mystical beliefs and practices, which she finds creatively inspiring as well as marketable subjects of her writing.

Keywords

religijska verovanja in prakse;primerjalna religiologija;potopisi;Vzhodna Azija;religious beliefs and practices;comparative religion;travel writing;East Asia;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2021
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL FF - Faculty of Arts
UDC:	2:821.163.6.09Karlin A.
COBISS:	77395715
ISSN:	2232-5131
Views:	226
Downloads:	83
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
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Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Privlačnost mističnega
Secondary abstract:	Svetovna popotnica in nemškojezična pisateljica Alma M. Karlin (1889–1950) je gojila posebno zanimanje za religijska verovanja in prakse dežel, ki jih je obiskala. Verjela je v romantični koncept religije kot okna v dušo naroda ter v teozofsko prepričanje, da so vse religije le partikularni izrazi temeljne univerzalne resnice. Zato je bila religijska tematika osrednjega pomena tako za njeno osebno kot profesionalno identiteto raziskovalke in pisateljice. Pričujoči članek obravnava odnos Alme Karlin do vzhodnoazijskih religijsko-filozofskih tradicij na primeru dveh verzij njenega neobjavljenega rokopisa Glaube und Aberglaube im Fernen Osten, ki je poskus predelave njenih uspešnih potopisnih člankov in knjig v etnografsko besedilo. Vsebinska in diskurzivna analiza pokaže vplive tako primerjalne religiologije s konca 19. stoletja kot novejših etnoloških pristopov s preloma stoletja. Alma Karlin privzame binarno nasprotje religije (predstavljajo jo budizem, šintoizem, daoizem in konfucijanstvo) ali nekoliko širše koncipiranega verovanja na eni strani in praznoverja (npr. tavajoči duhovi, lisičje vile) na drugi ter predpostavlja čistost tekstualnih tradicij v primerjavi z živetimi praksami. Toda obenem jo fascinirajo – v njenih očeh – bolj mistična verovanja in prakse, ki so zanjo tako ustvarjalni navdih kot tržno privlačna pisateljska snov.
Secondary keywords:	Karlin;Alma M.;1889-1950;
Type (COBISS):	Article
Pages:	str. 259-299
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ9 (25)
Issue:	ǂiss. ǂ3
Chronology:	2021
DOI:	10.4312/as.2021.9.3.259-299
ID:	13582427