Johnson writes about Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and partakes in a broader literary discourse, one that reflects the West's fascination with the east.

Setting: Abyssinia, Egypt, Syria
Happy valley: paradise, green, bountiful, lamb frolics with rabbits; Eden without religious overtones

Theme: Search for self, instructive narrative, “choice of life”
Rasselas learns Arabic, studies for 2 years
Learns about foreign manners, customs, etc. (archetypal traveler)
Time: time passes more slowly, people live with greater care and deeper sense of contemplation

Role of Imlac:
Cultural translator:
Discourse on Superiority of Europe: more knowledge, more comforts, but still the people are no more happy than elsewhere.

Johnson interest in the exotic, Persia (Iran), which reflects the 18th-century travel to the near east.

The debates in the narrative also reflect the 18th-century interest in biblical study, in anthropology, in origins of humanity, in science (astronomy), architecture,  etc.

Harem: stock image of the east

Rasselas: Blank Slate: dissatisfaction with his paradise
He learns about money and trade
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In addition to using Said's notion of Orientalism, we can find a number of ways to approach Rasselas:

The following are important themes or elements of the narrative

Happy Valley: life in a vacuum

Travel: Rasselas encounters sages, philosophers, naturalists, poets, merchants

Ongoing interest in science (study of nature, study of mechanics, etc.)

Gender roles: women in the home, men abroad

Johnson as literary critic (Chapter X, the role of the poet)