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What is Orientalism? Discuss the kinds of Orientalism. Discuss Edward Said contribution to it.

Orientalism is a term used by the literary and cultural studies scholars for the study of the aspects of Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures by American and European writers, designers and artists. The term has largely come into use in postcolonial studies and other fields after the publication of Edward Said’s highly influential and controversial book ”Orientalism” in 1978  and  acquired a negative connotation. In the book, Said effectively redefined the term "Orientalism" to mean a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the Middle East. 
 
"Orientalism" refers to the Orient or East, in contrast to the Occident or West, and often, as seen by the West. "Orientalism" is widely used in art, to refer to the works of the many Western 19th century artists, who specialized in "Oriental" subjects, often drawing on their travels to Asia. Such artists and scholars were described as "Orientalists" in the 19th century, especially in France and England.
In 1978, the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said redefined the word “Orientalism” and he used the term to describe a general Western tradition of prejudiced outsider interpretations of the East, shaped by the attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Edward Said, in the very beginning of his book “Orientalism” has given three meanings of the term. Firstly, he describes Orientalism as:
“…a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European Western experience.”
Then he states:
“Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and (most of the time) "the Occident."”
Finally he defines Orientalism:
“…as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”
Professor Sut Jhally makes the idea of Orientalism clearer to us by comparing it with a “lens”.

“…the way the West, Europe and the U.S.A, looks at the countries and peoples of the Middle East is through a lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and those people. He (Said) calls this lens… Orientalism”

Professor Jhally also describes “Orientalism” as a framework that the West use to understand the unfamiliar and the strange; to make the peoples of the Middle East appear different and threatening.
Orientalism can be categorized into two groups /parts, Anglo- French Orientalism on the one hand and the American Orientalism on the other. Now we will go for the details of them.
The process of Anglo- French Orientalism begins with the start of European colonization in Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Britain had a long-standing imperial role in in country like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh cte.  In the same way, Franc had a direct colonial experience in countries like North Africa, Algeria or Indochina. They conquer them not only militarily but also what we could call ideologically. They use “orientalism” as a weapon to keep their domination over the Orient.  
Said draws on written and spoken historical commentary by such European  figures as Arthur James Balfour, Napoleon, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron, Henry Kissinger , Dante and others who all portray the "East " as being both " other " and " inferior”. So thy divided the world into two parts; the east and the west or the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. So they thought, as a refined race it was their duty to colonize and rule the orients to civilize these people. They  had the right to represent the orientals in the west all by themselves. So, they shaped the Orientals the way they perceived them or in other words they were orientalizing the orients.
The Europeans defined themselves by defining the orientals. For example, qualities such as lazy, irrational, uncivilized, crudeness were related to the orientals, and automatically the Europeans became active, rational, civilized, sophisticated. Thus, in order to achieve this goal, it was very necessary for the orientalists to generalize the culture of the orients.
The Europeans started generalizing the attributes they associated with orientals, and started portraying artificial characteristics associated with orientals in their western world through their scientific reports, imaginary paintings, literary works, and other media sources.
Orientalist paintings were intended as propaganda in support of imperialism, depicting the East as a kind of mysterious place full of secrets and monsters, the sensual woman who is there to be sort of used by the man etc.

 Among the oriental artists Delacroix (1798–1863), Antoine-Jean Gros (1771–1835), Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803–1860), and William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) were the main.
The orientalist Literature includes “The Travels of Marco Polo”, Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, (1588-89), John Dryden’s “Aureng-zebe” (1675), Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters” (1721)
Lord Byron’s “Don Juan”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” (1816), Edgar Allan Poe’s “Al Aaraaf” (1829), and Israfel (1831) etc.

After World War I the centre of orientalism moved from Europe to USA so there began the American Orientalism. It is much more indirect and much more based on abstractions then British and French one and is very politicized by the presence of Israel for which America is the main ally.
The United States considers in affiliation with Israel considers Islam as their great enemy and the competitor.
So the American Orientalism operates a threatening and demonized figure of the Islamic terrorist that is emphasized by journalists and Hollywood. 
The American journalists cover “the Iranian Revolution” in such a manner, as Said says: 
“…all of them giving the impression of the utmost negative, sort of evil emanation. So the impression you got of Islam was that it was a frightening mysterious, above all threatening, as if the main business of Muslims was to threaten and try to kill Americans.
They represent much more threatening picture of Islam by misinterpreting Islamic term “Jihad” based on the bombing of the World Trade Center.
They pay a keen and exaggerated attention on “Hamas terrorists” on the West Bank. As Professor Said says:
“…very little attention is paid to the fact that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been going on for thirty years, it's the longest military occupation in this century. …and nothing is said about the hundreds of thousands, millions of Palestinians who are dispossessed, living miserable lives as a direct result of what Israel has done and is doing.”
Moreover in American fictions and Hollywood films about the Middle East the Arabs almost always play the role of terrorists and violent people and irrational and so on and so forth.
Said recognizes that terrorism exits, as a result of the violent, political situation in the Middle East. But he argues that there is a lot more going on there that is misunderstood or not seen by the peoples of the West. The result of the media's focus on one negative aspect alone means that all the peoples of the Islamic world come to be understood in the same negative and paranoid way, that is, as a threat. So that when we think of people who look like that and come from that part of the world we think fanatic, extreme, violent. Said argues that understanding a vast and complex region like the Middle East in this narrow way takes away from the humanity and diversity of millions of ordinary people living decent and humane lives there.

To conclude our discussion, it must be said that Orientalism creates a Eurocentric romanticised image of East outside of the history and a creation of an ideal “Other” for Europe and by the Europe. But Said challenges this prejudiced idea about the east and successfully destabilises it. So the term Orientalism becomes an important part postcolonial studies and Said is considered an important figure in postcolonial studies and.


    

This paper is prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.
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