American Missionaries in the Ottoman Empire

This book is a metaphor-based analysis of the texts produced by the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in the Ottoman Empire from 1820-1898. It explores the conceptual metaphor networks inherent to official missionary discourse. The explication of these networks uncovers how the missionaries defined and depicted themselves and what they encountered. A synthesis of literary studies, linguistics, cultural history, and religious studies, the work analyzes the missionary narrative in its historical context by applying literary, narratological, and linguistic tools.