Nerval’s Orient is deliberately subordinate and oblique rather than centered on principal imperial cities

Evidence

To Nerval’s eyes, Chateaubriand’s journey remains a voyage along the surface, while his own is calculated, utilizing annex centers, lobbies of ellipses englobing the principal centers; this allows him to place in evidence, by parallax, all the dimensions of the snare harbored by the normal centers. Wandering the streets or environs of Cairo, Beirut, or Constantinople, Nerval is always lying in wait for anything that will allow him to sense a cavern extending beneath Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem [the principal cities of Chateaubriand’s Itinéraire]. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 469

Categorization

• DEFINE: Butor’s distinction between Chateaubriand’s surface itinerary and Nerval’s elliptical, annexing route articulates two modes of relating to the Orient within the Orientalist tradition.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 469