Montenegro as an Exotic Space in German Travelogues in the First Half of the 19th Century

This article deals with the perception of space in German travelogues about Montenegro written in the first half of the 19th century. The significant aspects of the representation of space that transported the image of Montenegro as an exotic land were identified and examined in six travelogues that originated from the time of Njegos' rule (1830-1851). Exoticism as form of focusing on the foreign was partly positively and partly negatively connoted. It was found that the exoticism of the spatial representation of Montenegro in the interpreted and analysed texts is primarily based on the discrepancy between an intention to achieve an objective representation and the subjective perception of the narrator. By different literary means the described geographical structures were semantized as exotic, other, strange, and threatening or as the Arcadian wilderness, with which Montenegro was associated until late into the 20th century.