Orientalism A Brief Analysis

A detailed Summary of Orientalism A Brief Analysis

"...the generic term that I have been employing to describe the Western approach to the Orient; Orientalism is the discipline by which the Orient was (and is) approached systematically, as a topic of learning, discovery and practice".

By this, Said is saying because we treated the East like a school subject, we have learned to treat the East as an inferior. Which has developed into something called Orientalism.

The poets, authors and statesmen of the nineteenth-century have made Orientalism every thing that it is. They started out with the intent of learning about a civilization of people that was extremely different from ours. Their intentions were academic and nothing more really. Unfortunately, their almost unconscious prejudices and fears of the unknown, led to the slow cultural and then political domination of the place referred to as the Orient. I agree with Said on the matter of knowledge leading to slow domination, but I think he needs to be much clearer on the fact that it was arrived at with good intentions. Our predecessors wanted to understand, unfortunately there were much too eager, and presumptuous.

My generation has been exposed to many new technologies, and has seen great progression in the political world. Although Said makes a very good argument in every aspect on how Orientalism developed and matured, I do believe he takes a fatalist perspective. Considering how much times are changing. I theorize that years from now we can correct the mistake of the past, with plans of a harmonious future. Education, used properly and unbiased, is the key to many of this worlds unpleasant situations. Equality is the goal for the future.

"books on fierce lions will do until lions can talk".

Said writes that Orientalism can be found in present day Western deifications of the area referred to as the Orient. I do see that everywhere, sadly along with many other cultures that we have either destroyed or controlled. It appears that the western culture has trusted in subduing other humans, in order to prosper. It is extremely disheartening to see the country that you have been taught (falsely) that your country is one based upon fundamental freedom, and equality, and the ingenuity of it's forefathers. At the occurrence of comprehending you have been lied to by Mother culture, you understand that forefathers were not much more than greedy, sanctimonious animals. Who built this country on the bones of the slain, while their culture, now referred to as artifacts, sit in a European, or American museum. Said writes:

"For every Orientalist, quite literally, there is a support system of staggering power...To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write with the authority of a nation...One would find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda-which is what it is, of course-were it not accompanied by sermon on the objectivity, the fairness, the impartiality of a real historian, the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that Orientalists...writing about Muslims are, by definition, by training, by the mere fact of their Westerness. This is the culmination of Orientalism as a dogma that not only degrades its subject matter but also blinds its practitioners".

In television and cinema, Arabs are disgraced also...Said infers that it has much to do with the oil boycott of 1973-1974, most people do not realize how much the boycott benefited western oil powers.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Edward Said's, Princeton University, Orient Napoleon's, Africans Hitler, Orient Orientalism, Muslims Arabs, East West, Europeans Americans, Orientalistswriting Muslims, Arab Oriental, textual attitude, freedom war, referred orient, muslims arabs, orientalism started,

Approximate Word count = 1697
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics