Enlightenment and Romanticism both generated new Muslim monsters via different means

Evidence

The trend toward the exotic was fueled by the growth of Romanticism, an artistic and philosophical movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The image of an exotic Orient associated with “sensuality, promise, terror, sublimity, idyllic pleasure, [and] intense energy” can be found in the works of musicians, painters, novelists, and philosophers from Mozart to Byron, Hugo, and Goethe. To be fair, the Romantics did not only look to the East for the exotic: they also looked to their own past, drawing from Gothic tales and stories of European barbarians. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 89 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The Enlightenment saw the birth of scholarship on Islam that was both realistic and sympathetic. For instance, in contrast to the vicious medieval demonization of Muhammad, several philosophers published tracts arguing that Muhammad was not an impostor. Voltaire defended Muhammad as a great thinker and founder of a rational religion even as he (and other Enlightenment critics of organized religion) condemned Islam quite acerbically. Daniel explains Voltaire’s contradictory stances: “We must say that Voltaire first thought an attack on Islam useful for an attack on religion generally; and later saw the advantage of treating the facts less passionately, in order to recommend natural religion at the expense of Christian belief.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment thinkers retained older anti-Muslim stereotypes — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 161; Frontier captivity narratives transferred the monster trope from Indians to Muslims and Africans.; Muslim monster imagery survived into the eighteenth century in colonial-era literature. (+15 more)

Related

• Enlightenment science and Romanticism both renewed medieval Muslim-monster fantasies rather than ending them (similarity 0.93)
• Enlightenment thinkers retained older anti-Muslim stereotypes (similarity 0.86)
• Romanticism projected an exotic Orientalist fantasy rather than accurate knowledge (similarity 0.84)
• Enlightenment rationalism generated new monsters instead of eradicating them (similarity 0.84)
• Modern Muslim monsters rest on medieval fantasies (similarity 0.84)
• Orientalism sustains the credibility of preexisting Muslim monster images (similarity 0.84)
• Enlightenment critique domesticated monsters into pathological human degenerates (similarity 0.83)
• Orientalism sustains Muslim monster imagery without originating it (similarity 0.82)
• Orientalist monsters shifted from animal hybrids to demonized Muslim men (similarity 0.82)
• Gothic literature expanded Romantic villainy into full-blown Muslim monsters (similarity 0.82)
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam (similarity 0.82)
• Gothic horror expanded Romantic vilification of Muslims into monstrousness as an anti-Enlightenment reaction. (similarity 0.81)
• Orientalist monsters could migrate across religious and ethnic targets at will (similarity 0.81)
• Orientalism’s ontological rigidity makes its fantasies nearly impossible to dismantle (similarity 0.81)
• Enlightenment science created monsters that were not theologically constructed. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Romanticism projected an exotic Orientalist fantasy rather than accurate knowledge #exemplifies (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 89
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #expands (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Orientalist monsters shifted from animal hybrids to demonized Muslim men #expands (0.60)
• Oriental villains shaped the Muslim monsters of Gothic horror #exemplifies (0.60)
• Enlightenment fantasies of foreign monsters persisted well into the eighteenth century #expands (0.50)
• Enlightenment critique domesticated monsters into pathological human degenerates #expands (0.50)
• Medieval Muslim-monster imagery persists today through Gothic horror and Orientalism #expands (0.50)
• Gothic Muslim villains transferred feminine evil onto their female victims #exemplifies (0.50)
• Church persecution as doctrine caused the emergence of Muslim monsters #contradicts (0.40)