I think nowadays, when people study orientalism, it’s mainly a focus on MENA, India, China etc. But considering the Balkans, up until the later half of the 1800s, was dominated by the Ottoman Empire(considered an Oriental State), was it excluded from the socio-cultural definitions of Europe at that time? Would the Balkans(even as independent nations) be considered European in the same way Great Britain, France, or Poland were?
I ask this question because in Dracula, Romania seems to be depicted as this far-away, mystical place, much in the same way areas outside of Europe were, despite Romania being a “European, Christian Country”.
Greetings! This is a rather interesting question, and it certainly touches on a fair few areas of history and even culture as well. How perfect that my research on the First World War and 19th century European geopolitics has yielded some relevant findings for this question! As a shorter response, it should be made clear here that the Balkans, despite being under Ottoman stewardship and control, were still referred to as "Southeastern Europe" or indeed, "The Balkans" in diplomatic correspondence and public perception of the late 1800s. This mainly stems from the fact that despite the control that the Ottoman Empire possessed over this region of Europe, the populations in many of the to-be Balkan nations (Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and so forth) were a mix of Muslim, Slavic, and Orthodox Christian populaces.
The closest we might get to "the Orient" in this case is the somewhat old-fashioned term "Near East", which did include some provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, but mainly referred to the Ottoman Empire in Asia and the Middle East as we now term it. An even more specific term was "The Sublime Porte", which referred specifically to the Ottoman government in the capital of Constantinople (Istanbul). Towards the end of the 19th century, the Balkans became a particularly notorious "hotspot" of Europe, so much so that contemporary politicians and historians often referred to it as "The Balkan Powder-Keg", an allusion to its unstable sociopolitical situation. The British government in particular were more inclined to think of the Balkans as "The Near East", owing mostly to its geographical location in Europe relative to Great Britain, but also to its proximity to the "near eastern" part of their empire in India and (after 1882) Egypt. In perhaps the most famous example of the region's naming and a bit of fortune telling, Otto von Bismarck (he of Iron Chancellor fame) remarked in 1888 during a speech that:
“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”
Thus, even during Ottoman control in the latter half of the 1800s, the European community viewed the Balkans as separate from the rest of the "Orient" (which I might add, did not even apply to the Ottoman Empire per se during this time). The region remained very much a part of Europe - if somewhat seen as "backwards" and rife with instability - reasons why it also was (during the time) a central concern to policymakers from Paris to St. Petersburg and London to Vienna.
Hope this brief response helps, and feel free to ask any follow-up questions on the Balkans with regards to great-power politics in the late 1800s!