The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

An important element of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville is its depiction of the Other. Mandeville spends almost the entire narrative interacting with and describing societies culturally and geographically removed from Western Europe and the Roman Catholic culture that defined it at the time. Contemporary conceptions of race were not yet prevalent at the time Mandeville was writing; in the absence of modern nation-states, even ethnicity was less well-defined. Nevertheless, Mandeville’s depictions of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia feature some of the hallmarks of the racial and cultural discourse that would develop in the age of European imperialism.

When discussing the Other, Mandeville is keen to present himself as an objective observer. He rarely passes explicit moral judgments, and when he does it is generally in reference to specific cultural practices instead of entire groups. Mandeville frames himself as a dispassionate and truthful narrator concerned with giving his audience a useful impression of the world. He reinforces this image by challenging the reader to go and see the areas he has described, which will confirm the truth of everything he has said. By taking this approach, Mandeville can frame the moral stances he does take as objective fact instead of opinion.