Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Analysis

Feminism and Orientalism: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and British Imperialism The Ottoman Empire, based in present day Turkey, was in decline for centuries, its decline beginning during the crusades and not being fully completed until the First World War. The region was important to only to British trade concerns but as a buffer zone to protect those interests from the encroaching Russian empire. In the early eighteenth century, the Ottomans faced conflict along their European border as well as a larger pattern of cultural decline. As part of an effort to protect British economic and political assets, Sir Edward Wortley Montagu was dispatched as ambassador to Istanbul. Accompanying him on the journey was his wife Mary, who would later become one of the most influential women in Europe. The culture that Montagu experienced and described in her letters and publications must be contextualized by both a broader regional history as well as within
Curious, witty, and fiercely intelligent, the correspondence from her time as the wife of the British ambassador in Istanbul are ideal primary sources for examining British imperial presence in the Ottoman Empire. Carefully edited and curated, Montagu’s published works are an ideal starting point for examining early philosophies of intersectional feminism within the context of empire. Imperialism may be essentially defined as the domination of one state’s influence over another by political, economic, militaristic, or cultural means. According to this conception, one may also view Montagu as an agent of imperialism. Yet, it is perhaps because of this inherent bias that her work is such a fascinating source. As both historical and literary works, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu provides a unique perspective the ideas of feminism, Orientalism and nationalism that began to emerge during the eighteenth