Palestine as Europe's Future: Antiquity as Contemporaneity in Volney's Travels , Considerations , and The Ruins

European Romanticism often represents Palestine in ageographical terms. Through an analysis of Volney’s writings on the East, this article traces Palestinian ageography to religiously-inflected discourses that identify Palestine as Europe’s future. Volney juxtaposes antiquarianism, realist travelogue, and science fictional literary modes to represent Palestine’s multiple spiritual pasts, its contemporaneity with Europe, and its prophetic anticipation of revolution. His account of Palestine shapes Romanticism and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as arguably the first science fiction novel, demonstrating the importance of religious discourses for Romantic European engagements with Palestine.