Authors

Thapanee Tubnonghee¹;  ¹ Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy, Hungary

Discussion

This paper is about exploring the Postcolonial influence on János Xántus' Úti jegyzetek Sziámból (Travel Notes from Siam) (1869), during the Austro-Hungarian expedition to Asia between 1868 and 1871. János Xántus (1825–1894) was one of the leading Hungarian elite zoologists and political refugees after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. During Xántus' short stay in Siam (present-day Thailand) as part of the treaty initiation between the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Siam, he provided his detailed opinion and vivid observation of the Siamese monarchy, feudal system, society, culture, and nature. Úti jegyzetek Sziámból was published in the journal Földrajzi Közlemények, XV. Kötet (1887) (The official journal of the Hungarian Geographical Society, Volume 15). However, compared to his other travelogues, it was not extensively studied. Hoping to understand the development of Hungarians’ curiosity and ambitions in the East rooting from the imperial expeditions to the “Eastern Opening” foreign policy in 2011, this paper aims to examine Xántus' Postcolonial depiction of the East and the representations of Siam in his travelogue using narrative analysis.