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”).