Orientalism

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ORIENTALISM

In Edward Saids thesis entitled, Orientalism he examines the history of "Orientalism". "It is a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orients special place in European Western experience". That is, Europes vast and rich history with their geographical neighbours and how this affected one anothers rise. Europes history with the Orient goes back to the times of colonies. While Said notes that Americas new history is more recently defined with Asiatic wars in Japan and Korea. Orientalism is vaster in its definition. Said describes three meanings of Orientalism. There is a scholarly approach to the study. "Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient…is an Orientalist." (Said, 0). The term is less favoured today because it denotes a certain sense of superiority over the Orient. Mainly, however "Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the Orient and the Occident."(1). This distinction allowed writers to use it as a foreground for various writing themes. The last meaning brings to the thesis its discourse, "…a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority with the Orient." (1). The belief that Europe was able to manage and produce the Orient during the post-Enlightenment period.

During early nineteenth century the "Orient" mainly referred to India and the bible lands and from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the beginning of World War II France and Britain dominated the Orient and thus, Orientalism. After World War II it became Americas land and mentality. It is from the Occident (Britain, France and America) there is a strong form of texts called Orientalist.

It is important to note that the Orient and Occident are man-made and have their own true traditions and existence. The two entities need and support one another. There could not be Orientalism without each other and each entity would not be the same without their support. Three qualifications that support this according to Said are There are actually cultures who live in the Orient that know the reality far greater than those living and writing in the West, "the regular constellation of ideas as the pre-eminent thing about the Orient, and not to its mere being." (). The second qualification is the understanding of configurations of power, Said gives an example of Flaubert and his encounter with an Egyptian courtesan. He describes a "typical Oriental" to be subservient and dutiful. This supports an Orientalism discourse of the pattern of strength and power between East and West. Lastly, "Orientalism is not an airy European fantasy…but a created body of theory and practice in which, for many generations, there has been a considerable material investment." (4). The effort made by examining the Orient has allowed Westerners to understand the Orient.

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Gramsci has made two distinctions between civil and political society. Culture lies within the civil society and the dominating form is called, hegemony. It is "an indispensable concept for any understanding of cultural life in the industrial West" (4). It is in this work that reiterates the point that Europe is superior to the Orient.

Said details the difference of pure and political thought. Said points out his own area of study, which is the 'humanist or humanities. He stresses that humanities dont involve anything political. Said studies Orientalism "as a dynamic exchange between individual authors and the large political concerns shaped by the three great empires- in whose intellectual and imaginative territory the writing was produced." (0). Said recognizes that the study of Orientalism must have a formidable background in politics as he raises several questions, such as, " What other sorts of intellectual, aesthetic, scholarly, and cultural energies went into the making of an imperialist tradition like the Orientalist one?" (0). Said asks the methodological question in which he speaks of a "strategic location" and "formation." The strategic location is a way of describing the authors position in and text and the strategic formation is the way we analyze a text. Said understands the deep importance of representing the Orient. They must, in some way locate themselves in the Orient. Still, he acknowledges that every Orientalist assumes some precedent. Thus, the use of intertextuality in time will give strength and authority to the ideas used. It worries him because the earliest representations of the Orient were highly artificial. There is an obvious strength in language in text and it will depend on the West to represent the Orient.

There is an unconscious positivity called 'latent Orientalism and there are the various stated views about Oriental society called 'manifest Orientalism. Nineteenth century writers Said examined agreed that the Orient was a land in need of Western support. They were in need of civilization, christianisation and education. This was the situation from the 1870s to the early nineteenth century. Said gives many examples of Orientalism discourse in books and theses written at the time that support the claim of racial inequality. There were classic Oriental stereotypes made; Oriental males were viewed with contempt and fear, while the women expressed unlimited sensuality. "Moreover the male conception of the world, in its effect upon the practicing Orientalist, tends to be static…the very possibility of development, transformation, human movement…is denied to the Orient and the Oriental." (5).

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