His book is a canonical text about cultural studies
Challenges concept of orientalism
Orientalism: difference between east and west. Civilised, uncivilised. Theirs, ours. Europeans used orientalism to define themselves.
Whatever the orientals weren’t the occidents were. (only achieved through generalisations) For example, qualities such as lazy, irrational,
uncivilized, crudeness were related to the orientals, and automatically the Europeans became active, rational, civilized, sophisticated. Binary
opposites
 with the start of european colonisation they found “lesser developed” eastern countries. defined themselves as superior race, justified
colonisation by this concept- “their duty to civilise uncivilised
 found out their culture and civilisation was exotic, and studied them (Science of Orientals)
 Many orientalists lived with them to study how they lived. “every thing the orientals said and did was recorded irrespective of its context,
and projected to thecivilized world of the west. Whatever was seen by the orientals was associated with the oriental culture, no matter if it is
the irrational action of an individual.”
 Europeans generalised attributes associated with orientals. portrayed these artificial characteristics in western world through scientific
reports, literary work etc
 Biased attitudes
 Still evident today. For example, the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people; and Islam is seen as religion of the terrorist.
 shaped the orientals the way they perceived them (orientalizing the orients)
Orientalist structures and restructures
 “Edward Said points the slight change in the attitude of the Europeans towards the orientals. The orientals were really publicized in the
European world especially through their literary work.”
 “Oriental land and behaviour was highly romanticized by the European poets and writers and then presented to the western world. “ So
romanticised that these exotic lands of pureness and clean oceans etcs were necessary for peace of mind, a place of no evils. purity equalled
inferiority. Too naive to deal with real world
 Orients presented on stage with colour/perception of orientalist
 Darwin’s theories put forward to justify their inherent superiority
Orientalism, a term he redefined to mean the Western study of Eastern cultures and, in general, the framework of how The West perceives and
represents The East
Marginalised
Other voice found. Represent themselves in texts themselves
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