How East is inferior to West?

Presented by Nupur VyasRoll No: 34

Subject: Paper 11 The post-colonial LiteratureYear: 2015-17

Submitted to M.K.B.U , S.B. Gardy Department of English, Bhavnagar.

Topic• What is the meaning of

Occident?• How is it different from

Orient?• How according to said is it

used to construct the identity of the east as

inferior to west?

Preface of Edward said• Edward said, a professor of

comparative literature and English at Columbia University.

• He was a political activist and literary critic who examined literature in light of social and cultural politics and was an outspoken proponent of the political rights of the Palestinian people and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Introduction of orientalism Orientalism is an academic term,

used in art history, literary studies, geography, and cultural studies.

It is describes a critical approach to representations

of the orient, eastern cultures of the middle east, North Africa, South west Asia, and South east Asia, represented as ‘European Knowledge of the orient’ created by artists and writers from Western Europe.

What is the meaning of occident and how is it different from orient?

• Simply in one word Orient means ‘East’, and Occident means ‘West’.

• The Orient – including present day Turkey , Greece , the Middle east and North Africa.

• The Occident- including the countries of the West , especially Europe and America.

• By ‘’different’’ means extremely different. East and West are polar opposites.

Compare and contrast of east and west

Orient(east)• East is mystical, emotional,

religious and mysterious.• East is exotic.(very different,

strange or unusual).• East is unknown and

unknowable to all except the most dedicated and initiated.

• East is backwards.• Oriental exhibitions and

descriptions are usually of barbarism, backwardness and ignorance.

Occident(West)• West is logical , organized , and

Scientific.• West is mundane. (dull and

relating to ordinary life)• West is known , mapped

territory- all that can be discovered is.

• West is advanced.• The western reader, writer and

traveler bring enlightenment and civilization- progress and social reform.

How according to said is it used to construct the identity of he east as inferior to west?

In Said's analysis the west essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped- thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted and reproduced.

Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said is the idea that western society is developed, rational , flexible, and superior..

Continue…• Orientalism is a way of seeing that imagines ,

emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S.

• According to Said, Orientalism dates from the period of European Enlightenment and colonization of the Arab World.

• Orientalism provided a rationalization for European colonialism based on a self-serving history in which ‘’the West’’ constructed “the East’’ as extremely different and inferior, and therefore in need of Western intervention or ‘’rescue’’.

Continue..• Examples of the paintings, created by

European artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, depict the Arab World as an exotic and mysterious place of sand, harems and belly dancers.

• Said relies heavily on ideas of Michel Foucault, the eminent French sociologist and philosopher, to explain that the ways of describing ‘’the east’’ are dominated by discourse of power-essentially saying that European orientalist writing were not describing the east , but Western imperial domination over the East.

Continue..• Edward Said argues that the Europeans divided the

world into two parts: Orient and Occident , this was totally an artificial boundary; and it was laid on the basis of the concept of them and us or theirs or ours.

• The Europeans defined themselves as the superior race compared to the Orientals ; they said that it was their duty towards the world to civilize the uncivilized world.

• The generalized attributes associated with the Orientals can be seen even today, Example, the Arab are defined as uncivilized people and Islam is seen as religion of the terrorist.

Orientalism now• This chapter starts off by telling us that how the

geography of the world was shaped by the colonization of the Europeans.

• The author then talks about the changing circumstances of the world politics and changing approach to orientalism in the 20th century.

• With the end of the World War-2, all the European colonies were lost , western prejudice towards eastern countries was still very explicit, and often they managed to generalize most of the eastern countries because of it. For example Arabs were often represented as cruel and violent people.

Thank you