The allure of the mystical : East Asian religious traditions in the eyes of Alma M. Karlin

Veselič, Maja (author)

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article examines her attitudes to East Asian religio-philosophical traditions, by focusing on the two versions of her unpublished manuscript Glaube und Aberglaube im Fernen Osten, which presents an attempt to turn her successful travel writing into an ethnographic text.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.

• Language: English
• Keywords: religious beliefs and practices, comparative religion, travel writing, East Asia, Alma M. Karlin
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 259-299
• Numbering: Vol. 9 (25), no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-131556
• UDC: 2:821.163.6.09Karlin A.
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2021.9.3.259-299
• COBISS.SI-ID: 77395715
• Publication date in RUL: 29.09.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.
• Licensing start date: 10.09.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Privlačnost mističnega : vzhodnoazijske religijske tradicije v očeh Alme M. Karlin

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.

• Keywords: religijska verovanja in prakse, primerjalna religiologija, potopisi, Vzhodna Azija, Alma M. Karlin

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J7-9429
• Name: Vzhodnoazijske zbirke v Sloveniji: vpetost slovenskega prostora v globalno izmenjavo predmetov in idej z Vzhodno Azijo

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P6-0243
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture