The power of Lingua Franca: the presence of the “Other” in the travel writing genre

Classic Edward Said's term Orientalism was widely applied to those narratives and story-telling oriented to deride, subordinate and domesticate the “Non- Western Other”. Over centuries, Europe has developed an imperial matrix that is finely enrooted in an uncanny long-dormant paternalism where “the Other” was treated as a child to educate. The European expansion was ultimately feasible according to two combined factors. The knowledge productions by the hands of scientists occupied a great position in the entertainment of global readerships, and of course, the literary fiction embodied in the figure of travel writing. This literary genre was mainly marked by the presence of a European adventurer who launched to colonize an unknown (uncivilized) world. Travel writings spoke us of the native language of travelers who interrogated furtherly the natives. The present paperwork centers on what Derrida dubbed as “the axiom of hospitality” which means the power of language to control and domesticate the “Other”. The lingua franca not only represents the language of empire but also from the lords. In this way, world Language plays a leading role in giving a great cosmology of the surrounding world as well as legitimating the imperial expansion.