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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