What´s Orientalism?

Orientalism

Orientalism is the "way" or discourse in which the Western imperial subject produces it self as sovereign subject in an act of dissimulation.

The topic of Orientalism is rather interesting given that Orientalism is seen as a “mode of thought based upon a particular epistemology and ontology which establishes a profound division between the Orient and the Occident” (Turner, 1994:p96). This division is what Said (2003) states to be, “the basic distinction between the East and West” and one which leads to the “reduction and misrepresentation of the East by the West” (Stanley, 2013).

This distinction is primarily due to Orientalism being the preconceived belief held by Occident’s on the types of people (orients) that live in the east and how their lifestyle and cultural beliefs, reflecting on the way they act. However, these ideologies are formed about the Orients by the Occident’s without meeting or visiting the inhabitants (Orients) (Said 2003; Akintunde E Akinade 2010: Jack G Shaheen 2009; Mahdi 1985).Thus, we can understand that Orientalism isn’t something that has been made up by theorist; however it is the discourse on the ways the east is perceived by the west.

Said(2003) states that “Orients and occident’s are manmade and Orientalism is a system of ideological factors.” Hence Orientalism is neither innocent nor pure but an example of western power and dominance. Foucault argues that “Orientalism is the discourse of power.”

This discourse emphasis on how the west see the east, Said believed that the west see the people of the east and the non white people as the ‘other’ The term “other” characterizes the choice of action to lower and exclude groups and societies they want.

“Orientalism is not a transcendental...

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...f Orientalism and has therefore become the means of propulsion of the East. Modern Orientalist shape ideologies in the ways in which they portray Islam negatively in the mass media, these representations can be understood in the images published about the muslim’s connotated as acts of terror, backwards, limited and oppressed. Said Emphasises that the misreporting about Islam is the only language they understand. They maintain the role to arbitrarily and go against Islam.

He further argues that the Western (especially American) understanding of the Middle East is a place full of villains and terrorists ruled by Islamic fundamentalism and produces a deeply distorted image of the diversity and complexity of millions of Arab and Muslim’s in the West. Thus it is crucial that we go up against the Islamophobic discourse and understand how it is preserved by the elites.