Definition of Orientalism

Orientalism: Edward Said did a great job of influencing how the West views the Orient. The book, which examined postcolonial debates about the middle east, was released in 1995. Known for his fervent support of the Palestinian cause, novelist Edward Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935. The majority of his writing, including this book, is a blend of literary and cultural critique motivated by his support for the Palestinian people. After the publication of this book, Edward turned the tables on how people view the Middle East and how they discuss it in their varied conversations. He identifies a myriad of assumptions of the west to the Orient. In support of his arguments, the author explores political tracts, travel books, religious studies among other literary works about the orient (Yujia, 2013). As a result of the enormous size of the east orient and the west occident, Edward focuses on the Anglo-French-American experience of Arabs and the Islamic community. His focus is mainly on Britain and France as they were the imperial powers before the rise of the United States of America after the second world war (Yujia, 2013).

I consider the book Orientalism, a winner due to the full range of thoughts it has generated from its critical readers. The book is most referred to in cases where the question of the relationship between the west and the east arises. It is Edward's most dominant contribution in the literary world, and it has been used in explaining various disciplines including literature, sociology, and comparative religion.

In his book, Edward critiques the study of the Orient and its ideologies. He expounds on the political, cultural and historical perspectives of the east that have been adopted by the west. Ideally, the author traces the diverse views and sentiments back to the colonial period when the British and the European dominated the Middle East. He introduces this book with an attempt to explain and define the term orientalism.

Definition of Orientalism.

Said defines the term Orientalism "as a way of coming to terms with the Orient." Further, Orientalism can be considered as both an academic discipline and also a way of thought founded on the firm belief in the deep-seated differences between the Orient and the occident (Said 1995). In his opinion, Said believes that the two definitions are interdependent. He goes further to break down orientalism in three ways. The first explanation is considered academic and has been widely accepted by academic scholars; it establishes an orientalist as a one who teaches, writes about, or does researches on the Orient and some of its aspects. Secondly, Orientalism is a manner of thought about the epistemological and ontological differences between the Orient and the occident (Said, 1975). Lastly, he defines orientalism as a corporate institution that deals with the orient by authorizing view on the orient, making a statement about it and researching about it among other things. The last definition is historical and is considered a description of the western domination of the Orient. This definition is what forms the basis of the seminal reading Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient.

The book delves into the attitudes of the imperialists in the last decades and exposes how the western views the middle east. Said dismantles the various misconceptions about the Orient and makes an ardent attempt to explore the origin of these myths. He reveals that the myths about the Easterners are as a result of prolonged and systematic decades of cultural representations of the Orient by its colonizers. However, in his descriptions, he exaggerates the situation and somewhat undermines the Westerners. Many critics are of the opinion that Said is one-sided in his arguments. He argues that the way of life of the residents of the Middle East is represented in an oriental manner and all the information about the Orient is a projection of the manner in which the Westerners view the easterners. Most scholars who write about the Orient will automatically see it through the perspectives of the biblical origin.

The book relooks the occident and the orient and studies the different cultures of the people from a non-manipulative perspective. In his own words, Said says that his primary goal in the book is to bridge the gap resulting from ages of Orientalists' discourses, misperceptions and inaccurate manner of viewing each other. Despite this confession, I feel that the author has created a rift rather than bridge the gap because he is selective when talking about the western perspective. He only considers the negative aspects thus somehow pitting the East against the West. However, it is not all negative as in his distorted way, he awakens the reader to the past of the orient and discredits the biased ideas that have been widely accepted both knowingly and unknowingly as the pure truths of the Middle East (Gunny, 2002).

Said further explores the significant influence of power and knowledge, that has played a vital role in shaping the identity of the colonized during the eras of colonialism. Also, he attempts to shatter the preconceived notions of the Westerners regarding the people living in the East and to reconstruct and re-narrate history from the perspective of the Orient. I am of the opinion that Said redefined terms, gave a new meaning to the long-established so-called truth and fact of the people living in the East. He has redefined the term ‘Orientalism,' highlighting what should be the actual significance of the word. Many critics feel that this move was quite advantageous as it established a more positive outlook towards the Orient.

According to the author, Colonizers distorted the meaning and significance of ‘orientalism,’; they dehumanized people and nations only to suit their interest and to sustain their exalted status in the World. Their constructed truth got established in the Western society as the proven fact and universal truth regarding the state of the Easterners. The people of the Western society never bothered to explore or to even take an interest in these Eastern ‘dark' and uncivilized countries, and blindly believed their defamatory portrayal by the colonizers. This misconception led to their instant viewing of these ‘developing countries' as inhabited by dehumanized people:

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea"—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to.… —Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.

The critique

The book is quite inspiring as Said shines the East under a different light. However, he falls into the same trap that he explores because, in his attempt to give a clear and less biased view about the Orient, he generalizes the beliefs of the west. Also, he views all the writings about the Orient as orientalism (Ward, 2004). Furthermore, Said has a firm belief in the existence of the orientalist thus he finds him everywhere. Therefore, this book revolves around the orientalist instead of providing a solution. However, he is right to point out that the western world has a narrow view of the residents of the Middle East and that it generalizes the Arabic masses and the Islamic world in various debates today.

Some critiques have argued that in his attempt to expose the uninformed conceptions of the west about the east, Edward Said has created an Occidentalism; a one-sided description of the western that is set out to undermine it. All these assumptions are supported by the evident personal dimension taken by this book (Baker, 2009).

In his discussions in the book, the author comes short as he fails to point out any suggestions on how to counter orientalism. He fails to give the reader an idea of how knowledge about the Orient can be retrieved without the orientalists' power. He just goes on to show the narrow view without a solution.

Moreover, it is crucial to note that various critiques have approved his works by acknowledging that it is a work of art that rightly points the Western stereotypes about the East. Talal Asad, the renowned anthropologist, accurately sums up the ideas of Said's book. According to him, the book, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient is:

not only a catalog of Western prejudices about and misrepresentations of Arabs and Muslims" ... [but an investigation and analysis of the] authoritative structure of Orientalist discourse—the closed, self-evident, self-confirming character of that distinctive discussion, which is reproduced, again and again, through scholarly texts, travelogues, literary works of imagination, and the obiter dicta of public men-of-affairs.

Said attempts to know himself by exploring the historical origins which are deeply embedded in the consciousness and the imagery of the residents of the orient. As a Palestinian who has spent his life in the United States of America, he exposes the disheartening sentiments that arise from political imperialism, racism, cultural stereotypes and various dehumanizing ideologies that the Eastern immigrants face. He intends to establish the genealogy of the orient and question some of the incorrect assumptions (Ward, 2004).

Said motivates the intellectuals to seek their genealogy in a way that has not been done before and to challenge the subjugating history presented under ethnic bias. He aims for physical and intellectual independence from the colonizers as he exercises his freedom by liberating others from the attitudes and references which he fears have been imposed by the orientalist discourse (Baker, 2009)

Audience and relevance.

The book Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient has several readers in mind. It is quite useful to the modern students studying the Orient, from academic scholars to policy makers, general readers and those focusing on the third world countries. Furthermore, it applies to those considering international relations due to its broad approach to the East and the domination by the imperial powers.

Said argues that Orientalism should be approached as a discourse analysis in a bid to understand it (Turner, 2004). In the field of political science, discourse analysis is quite vital in the constant exploration of international politics. Political science encourages the learners to have a critical understanding of various dominating powers as there exists some made up truths that are based on different power relations. Said provides a deep understanding of the East thus this book is quite helpful in gaining insights about the Middle East for political scientists. Moreover, the book is relevant when studying postcolonialism, the different forms of colonial power and in explaining the existence of racism in the world of politics.

Although the book was released in 1995, I believe that it is quite significant today. Since its release, the polarization of Europe and the United States of America on one side with the Islamic culture on the other has deeply grown. Some believe that the resentment that exists between the Middle East immigrants is a new attitude arising from recent immigration. In spite of these critics, I think that the bitterness has deeper roots best explained in this critical reading. According to Edward Said these issues arose from the attitude of forever viewing the eastern orient as the other (Turner, 2004).

This book is excellent reading for all readers despite its serious problem of generalizing. It touches on some of the significant issues that have been disguised for centuries. It further explains the harsh status quo of the Middle East and the Western occident. Although Said has made a few exaggerations, he attains his goal of trying to try to identify some of the assumptions that the west has harbored about the east for ages. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient is a great place to start when one has the intentions of studying the power relations that exist between the different cultures in the modern global hierarchy. In spite of all the criticism on this book, we will have to admit that it has proved to be instrumental given the current state of cultural imperialism and its impact on the lives of people.





References

Said, E. (1995) Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin.

Said, E.. (1978). Orientalism. New York, Pantheon Books.

Baker, B. (2009). Orientalism Beyond the Orient. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1477452

Ward, A. (2004). Eastern Others on Western Pages: Eighteenth-Century Literary Orientalism. Literature Compass, 1(1), **-**. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00068.x

Turner, B. (2004). Edward W. Said: Overcoming Orientalism. Theory, Culture & Society, 21(1), 173-177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263276404041958

Gunny, A. (2002). Review: Orientalism: A Reader: Orientalism: A Reader. Journal Of Islamic Studies, 13(3), 372-374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jis/13.3.372

Said, E. (2004). Interviews with Edward W. Said. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Yujia, Z. (2013). Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: China and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRCChina and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRC by VukovichDaniel F.. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 185pp., £80.00, ISBN 9 798 0 415 59220 8. Political Studies Review, 11(2), 305-305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12016_126