Orientalism, Edward Said
What is Orientalism about?
Not about WHO is saying something but about WHAT the content of what is being said is
What is Said studying?
how we came to believe the Orient's existence with Distinct and durable truths.
The Orient is
Abberant, undeveloped, inferior, traditional
culture talk
Crude view: Islam is the enemy civilization Subtle: Islam is divided within itself and must fight a civil war for its soul
When did the Orient begin?
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt (1798)
The West is
Rational, developed, human, superior
key things that stimulate orientalism
Science, measurement, mapping, representation, race science and civilizational anxiety
Orientalism themes
Self and the Other Power and knowledge representation, repetition, citation objectivity, positionality orientalism between the British and French Empires and Current US supremacy interest in the region Hierarchy and Power Race, Capital, Imperialism Expertise
Why can we entertain the notion that the Orient (people/politics) are exceptional in anture, do not function according to a comparative logic of human experience, and thus can be studied and analyzed in ways different than the west?
The Orient is ontologically different than the West and therefore can be studied and analysed in different ways necessitates a different way of producing knowledge (epistemology) which results in typical methods of Orientalism, theologocentrism, philologism, and exceptionalism
Orientalism is as much about constructing a "west" and "westerner"
as it is about constructing an "east" and an "eastern person"
Orient is adjacent to Europe
place of oldest and richest colonies, civilizations, languages, religions one of the deepest images of the other geographical and cultural entities that support and reflect one another
Distinct and durable truths about the Orient
result of academic, public, media, corporate, military, gov discourse, and modern political hitory
4 dogmas of the Orient
system difference between the West and the East ideas about the Orient are preferable to real evidence the orient is eternal, uniform and incapable of defining itself Orient is something to be feared
