Edward Said Orientalism - St Leonard's College · The cover of the first edition Orientalism is a...
Transcript of Edward Said Orientalism - St Leonard's College · The cover of the first edition Orientalism is a...
EDWARD SAID
EDWARD SAID Edward Said was a Palestinian-
American literary theorist and
cultural critic.
He was born 1935 and died in 2003.
Author of several highly influential
post-colonial texts, the most famous
of which was Orientalism.
He is one of the foundational
theories of post-colonial and Middle-
Eastern studies.
The cover of the first edition Orientalism is a detail from the
19th-century Orientalist painting ‘The Snake Charmer’
by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).
Representations of the Orient in early cinema
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ORIENT IN FILM (ALADDIN)
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ORIENT IN FILM (ALADDIN)
Oh, I come from a land,
from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
When the wind's from the east
and the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night
MODERN REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ORIENT IN FILM
MODERN REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ORIENT IN VIDEO GAMES
MODERN REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ORIENT IN NEWS MEDIA
EUROPEAN CULTURES HAVE HISTORICALLY DIVIDED WORLD HAS BEEN DIVIDED INTO TWO CATEGORIES:
OccidentalThe West
The familiar
Civilised and Sophisticated
Intelligent and Peaceful
Superior, Victorious and Dominant
Explicable and Rational
OrientalThe East
The other
Uncivilised and Crude
Barbaric and Violent
Inferior Defeated and Submissive
Mystical and Irrational
WHAT IS ORIENTALISM?
Said argues that the ‘orient’ is an idea that was invented by the Western
consciousness. It is part of a historical miscategorisation of people from
Africa, Asia and the Middle East by European academics, scholars, authors
and political elites.
It turns Eastern cultures into an ‘other’ – something that is different, that
can be feared, that can be defeated without offending the other values we
hold.
The concept of the ‘orient’ emerged as a means of justifying imperialism and
colonisation. This understanding of the ‘orient’ was not aimed at
understanding the people or coexisting, but on how to conquer and subdue
them.
ORIENTALISM, COLONISATION AND IMPERIALISM
Europe came to define itself in relation to the orient: the orient was
everything that Europe was not. If Europe is everything that is good, then
the Orient is it’s opposing force.
It has been about the glory of conquering the East and as a means of
justifying Western superiority over other cultures.
As a concept, orientalism is closely tied to colonialism (the conquering,
occupying and controlling of another country, populating it with settlers
and exploiting it economically) and imperialism (extending a country’s
power and influence through many means, including colonisation, military
force of economic power).
WHOSE KNOWLEDGE?Said argues that Orientalism has always been more about the European
cultures than the Eastern cultures: it is the story of the conquerors, not the
conquered.
The ‘knowledge’ of the Oriental people is based on entirely generalisations:
mythology, romanticised ideas, turning isolated observations into
“immutable law”. This knowledge, in turn, becomes a means of dominating
the colonised people and justifying the coloniser’s actions and narrative.
The ‘Orientals’ become passive in this history – they are objects to be
studied, don’t have any active role and lack their own voice.
ORIENTALISM AND STEREOTYPES
Orientalism leads to misconceptions in the West: mass stereotyping, lack of
knowledge of the differences between different countries, social groups,
religious sects, time periods, etc. There are always huge problems when you
attribute the one identity to a large group of diverse people.
Because of this, Orientalism is also anti-humanist as it prevents people from
viewing others as ‘humans’. People are robbed on their identity and
individuality when they are viewed in this way.
THE EFFECT OF ORIENTALISM TODAY
Orientalism continues to create fear towards the Eastern world. As a result,
it validates and encourages Western intervention in the Middle East. It
perpetuates ideas of Western cultural superiority while discouraging people
from learning and understanding the true complexities of Eastern cultures.
Orientalism continues to lead to the subjugation of Eastern cultures: in the
past through being turned into colonies of Europe, and today through
Western Imperialism, both military and economic.
In many ways, Orientalism has led to many of the problems that the Middle
East now faces: nations follow western-imposed boundaries; Western
policies and interference either gave rise to or support the continued
power of many of the dictatorships, etc.
ORIENTALISM AND CONFLICT
Orientalism invariably leads to conflict. By creating an ‘other’, fear is also
created, since this ‘other’ is meant to represent everything we are not.
When combined with mass-stereotyping and ignorance of these cultures, it
makes it difficult to avoid or resolve conflicts.
This fear and hatred can then be replicated. If people in the East are
treated as the enemies of the West and the representation of everything
the West is not, then this can be internalised. Stereotypes beget
stereotypes.
Through its connection with colonialism and imperialism, orientalism is
also closely aligned with greed and the desire to gain power and control
over others.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
Said, as a humanist, believes that we need to view people as humans first
and foremost, and not be misled by imposed identities. We must instead
seek understanding and knowledge and recognise our shared humanity
The aim of all cultures must be to work towards coexisting, rather than
trying to dominate the other. If we can do so, we will discover that there is
much that all of these cultures can learn from each other.
ORIENTALISM ON IDENTITY: EUROPE AND THE ORIENT
“European culture gained in strength and identity by
setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of
surrogate and even underground self.”
“A line is drawn between two continents. Europe is
powerful and articulate; Asia is defeated and distant.”
Orientalism became “a code by which Europe could
interpret both itself and the Orient to itself. “
ORIENTALISM ON KNOWLEDGE:HUMANISM VS ORIENTALISM
“…there is a difference between knowledge of other peoples
and other times that is the result of understanding,
compassion, careful study and analysis for their own
sakes, and on the other hand knowledge—if that is what it
is—that is part of an overall campaign of self-
affirmation, belligerency and outright war. There is, after
all, a profound difference between the will to understand
for purposes of co-existence and humanistic
enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for
the purposes of control and external dominion.”
ORIENTALISM ON FEAR:AMERICA, ISLAM AND THE MEDIA
“Today, bookstores in the US are filled with shabby screeds bearing
screaming headlines about Islam and terror, Islam exposed, the
Arab threat and the Muslim menace, all of them written by political
polemicists pretending to knowledge imparted to them and others by
experts who have supposedly penetrated to the heart of these strange
Oriental peoples over there who have been such a terrible thorn
in "our" flesh. Accompanying such warmongering expertise have been the
omnipresent CNNs and Foxs of this world, plus myriad numbers of
evangelical and right-wing radio hosts, plus innumerable tabloids and even
middle-brow journalists, all of them re-cycling the same unverifiable
fictions and vast generalizations so as to stir up "America" against
the foreign devil.”
ORIENTALISM ON THE IRAQ WAR:THE WESTERN VIEW OF IRAQ
“Without a well-organized sense that these people over there
were not like "us" and didn't appreciate "our" values,
the very core of traditional Orientalist dogma,…there would
have been no war.”
ORIENTALISM AND IDENTITY:THE DANGERS OF STEREOTYPING
“…the terrible reductive conflicts that herd people under
falsely unifying rubrics like "America," "The West" or
"Islam" and invent collective identities for large numbers
of individuals who are actually quite diverse, cannot
remain as potent as they are, and must be opposed, their
murderous effectiveness vastly reduced in influence and
mobilizing power. We still have at our disposal the rational
interpretive skills that are the legacy of humanistic
education…”
ORIENTALISM AND SOLUTIONS:COEXISTENCE AND UNDERSTANDING
“Rather than the manufactured clash of civilizations, we need
to concentrate on the slow working together of
cultures that overlap, borrow from each other, and live
together in far more interesting ways than any abridged
or inauthentic mode of under-standing can allow.”
BRINGING IT TOGETHER:Renowned academic and literary theorist Edward Said, in his highly influential
work Orientalism, explores the notions of the ‘Orient’ that have given a false
sense of empowerment to certain nations that they have the power to justify
invasions, colonisation and supposed democratisation of lands in the ‘Orient’.
Said argues that the “unifying rubrics” like “the West” and “the East”
do nothing but create “collective identities” that strip people and cultures of
their agency and shun diversity. He illustrates how greed and stereotyping has
given credence to false ideas that validate attempts to “dominate for the
purposes of control”, and argues that we instead need to “concentrate
on the slow working together of cultures”. We need to overcome these
rigid dichotomies so that we can “borrow from each other, and live
together in far more interesting ways”. Ultimately, Said urges us to be
more accepting of diversity, rather than fearing that which is foreign. By doing
so, both “the Orient” and “the Occident” can collaborate and share
cultures that mutually benefit each other