Introduction
Based on Edward W. Said’s book ‘Orientalism’, the paper summarizes Said’s concept of Orientalism and answers the following questions: What is Orientalism, as defined by Said? What impact does it have in our world, on large and small scales? How does the concept of Orientalism constitute a system of power, rather than incidences of misuse of power? What hegemony mean and how does it relate to the concept of Orientalism? What is the East, and what is the West, and given the fluid borders between the two can we really say there are a concrete East and a concrete West?
Summary
In the introduction to the book, Said claims that the Orient was almost a European invention since ancient times perceived as “a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, and remarkable experiences” (Said 8). Quite the opposite is the American perspective as they associate the Orient mostly with the Far East. However, Orientalism would never be the same, the author claims. Said defines Orientalism as the way Westerners accept the core distinctions between East and West throughout the process of elaborating theories, novels, epics, political accounts, and social descriptions with regard to the Orient, as well as its customs, people, the ways they think and behave. Said claims that one should seek the roots of Orientalism in European Enlightenment and colonization of the Arab World. He argues that the concept of Orientalism constituted a rationale for European colonialism of the East on the grounds of a self-serving history claiming that ‘the West’ constructed ‘the East’ as completely different and inferior paradigm it can intervene or conquer. Herewith, Said points out that Orientation has been a way of agreeing with the Oriental worldview given the Orient’s particular place in European Western history.
Through Orientalism Said appeals to patronizing perceptions of the Westerners and their biased depictions of the societies that live in the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa. Importantly, he stresses that Orientalist rhetoric in the West relates to the influences of the imperialist societies that produced it. The author reflects on the practices of the ruling Arab elites who still depend on the British and American Orientalists who have romanticized and internalized the ‘Arabic Culture’. Said claims that the Orient presents the richest and oldest colonies that once belonged to European invaders. Throughout centuries, it became a powerful source of the European civilizations and their cultures and languages (Said 9). Said makes clear that the Orient is an indispensable part of European material civilization and culture acknowledged by various doctrines, scholarship, institutions, vocabulary, and colonial styles. This way, the author concludes that Orientalism is a mode of thought grounded on epistemological and ontological distinctions between “the Orient” and “the Occident” (Said 10).
Works Cited
Orientalism. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Henley. 1978. 1-31
