Orientalism

Edward Said (1935-2003)

Theoretical Influences on Said’s Work

• Michel Foucault: Notion of Discourse

• Erich Auerbach: History and Representation

• Antonio Gramsci: Concept of Hegemony

What is Orientalism? Three Interrelated Definitions

• Study of the Orient

• Style of thought

• Corporate institution for dealing with the Orient

Main Actors and Purpose

• French and British empires (from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the end of World War II)

• The United States (after World War II)

• Civilize the natives• Progress and “true”

religion • Financial and

economic benefits • Political domination

and cultural control

Methodological Devices

• Strategic Location and Strategic Formation

• Exteriority and Representation

• The Personal Dimension

Characteristics of Orientalism

• Othering and Opposition

• Reductionism

• Distorted Forms of Representation

Reception and Impact of Orientalism

• Defense of Islam• Challenge to Western cultural domination • Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin: “Native

Americans, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, and other colonized peoples and oppressed groups located in Orientalism a method to challenge a chronic tendency of the West to deny, suppress, and distort their cultures and histories.”

Questions for Further Discussion

• Relationship between language and representation

• Relationship between knowledge and power

• Role of the intellectual in the production and dissemination of knowledge

Role of the Intellectual

• When asked in 2001 about how he would like to be remembered, Said said he would want people to eulogize that he “tried to tell the truth” (“Interview”). He often argued that it was the “intellectual's role to speak the truth, as plainly, directly, and as honestly as possible. No intellectual is supposed to worry about whether what is said embarrasses, pleases, or displeases people in power. Speaking the truth to power means additionally that the intellectual's constituency is neither a government nor a corporate or a career interest: only the truth, unadorned” (“Desolation”).