The term orientalism is descriptive of the portrayal of different characteristics of Middle Eastern cultures by writers from the West. While some of these writings show the Eastern cultures in a positive light, the majority of them are biased and emphasise on existing or imaginary negative aspects as perceived by strangers to the Eastern culture. There are Western based designers, writers and even artists who have, over the centuries, sought to depict different facets of the Eastern cultures. One famous scholar, Edward Said, actually addressed different facets of orientalism in his book on the subject (Said 1978). His discourse uses both artistic as well as academic trains of thought to define different qualities of Middle Eastern cultures as defined from the Western perspective. According to Ghazoul (2004), among other scholars, Edward Said’s observations are reminiscent of attitudes that extolled European imperialism in the days of colonialism.
According to Said (1978) the entire concept of ‘orientalism’ is compromised, in the eyes of most Arabic and Asian peoples because it appears to them to be filled with archaic prejudices against Eastern cultures. Moreover, the word ‘orientalism’ is also used to refer to the definitions of Middle Eastern cultures by scholars who hold more pro-Eastern attitudes. Another common complaint is that Western historians and scholars’ definitions of orientalism do not seek to make distinctions between the different tribes and cultures that make up the Middle East (Varisco 2013). Their definition of ‘orientalism’ is based on similar constructs to those in the West where, even though different nations may have different ethnic groups, they all embrace a progressive culture based on Judeo-Christian co...
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The Western ideology of the Eastern exoticism and docility originates from the long historical context of imperialism and political tensions between the West and the East. Domestic struggles caused by political strife and war in the East, such as the Philippines during the American-Spanish War and China during the Opium Wars, created an opportunity for the West to infiltrate the destabilized Eastern countries. This access allowed the West to exercise a form of supremacy over Asia, as the East was seen as powerless and incapable of self-governance. Thus, considering themselves as racially and politically superior, the West adopted a “White Man’s Burden” mentality described as the duty of the masculine Western men to dominate the East and civilize the “uneducated” and “feminine” Orientals. This racial supremacy mentality characterized the Eastern natives as feminine and the Western imperialists as masculine because the Eastern natives were obedient and docile to those of the West. This historical framework would eventually co...
“To say pan-Arabism is ‘dead’ would be inaccurate- because it was never ‘alive,’ in any meaningful sense, in the first place.” Assess viewpoints for and against this argument, with special reference to at least one appropriate country.
Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537.
The binary thought process and power dynamic invoked by Western history is very similar to the same thought process and power struggle the Jedi face with the "Others" in their universe. In the fictional universe of Star Wars, the Jedi are the guardians of the Star Wars universe, and the only beings powered by the mystical energy of the Force. The Force gives their lightsabers energy and gives them a constant source of "power", much like a wizard uses magic. The Jedi, the most powerful beings in the universe, function like the West in their position of power, they can distort laws and ways of living and thinking. In Edward Said’s Orientalism, he argues that the Orient is culturally and ideologically born through the process of Western self-identity,
Islam culture in a way that was not seen in JudeoChristian ones. ( Murray 91). The
The Arab world consists of twenty-two countries encompassing all of North Africa and much of the Middle East. The Arab people number over 360 million and while they share a common language, there is a surprising degree of diversity among them, whether in terms of nationality, culture, religion, economics, or politics. (McCaffrey, 3) Most inhabitants of the Ar...
... assertions that no European or American scholar could know the orient are criticized largely by Landow, however, in his view, whatever the European and American have done have resulted to acts of oppression. Moreover, Said is considered as a person who never took tie to welcome other scholars’ views which he would use to feature in his analysis. According to Landow, he considers this as the greatest single sin committed by a scholar in orientalism (Landow, N.d).
Said, Edward. ?Orientalism.? Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998.
In the first two chapters the attitude of colonizers to the colonized is analyzed particularly by making use of ideas from Edward Said’s work Orientalism . Policies like ‘divide and rule’ which was aimed at creating a rift amongst the natives also is analysed by elaborating instances from the novel. Adichie, like all African writers, concentrate on the impact of colonization on the culture and mindset of people of the colonies. In Half of a Yellow Sun, several facets of the Nigeria-Biafra war, which had so far remained unveiled are brought to light. Adichie has given a faithful account of the crisis in her work Half of a
The Middle East has come along way since the rise of civilization thousands of years ago. Civilization emerged in the Middle East and northeast Africa along the river systems as agricultural societies grew in population and developed new forms of social organization. For the last two thousands years the west has been drawn to the middle east fascinated by the culture, religion, resources and politics. The Middle East has an immense impact on the world globally. My goal in this paper is to explain the ancient and modern significance of the Middle East and how it impacts the world in such a globalizing way.
Western civilization, generally speaking, is extremely egotistical and has the view that Western culture is superior to all others. They believe they are more civilized and more educated than the rest of the world and because of this, stems the idea that it is the duty of Western civilization to take other, less developed societies under their wing. These concepts of supremacy and domination are closely related to Said's ideas of Orientalism. In his book, Orientalism, Edward Said explains in detail exactly what he believes the word Orientalism means. He tries to prove his concepts through the words of statesmen, including Britain's Evelyn Baring Cromer. Cromer's words reflect the concepts introduced by Said.
In addition, Orientalism also explained in the book “Orientalism” written by Edward Said, a Palestinian post-colonialism scholar. In this book Edward Said explain about history and culture of Asia, Africa, and Middle East, also he explained Orientalism in this book more briefly. Said believe that orientalism has an explicit and implicit sides. Said wrote that connotatively, Orientalism is a tool for the west to get a political influences in the east which means, “It connotes the high-handed executive attitude of nineteenth-century and early- twentieth-century European colonialism.”(Said, 2). Which is the whole point of the book “Orientalism”. Moreover, Said also wrote “Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the Occident.’ Thus a very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, n...
The term "orient" as a collective noun refers to the eastern world as a whole and orientalism as suggested by Edward Said's book Orientalism, is a specific way of looking to the east. It refers to the sum of western representation of the east. It is first and foremost a fabricated construct, a series of images that come to stand as the orient's reality for th...
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