HIST 900
Said Comps Summary
Tags: Said, Orientalism, Orientalist, Post-Colonial, “other,” “othering”, Oriental, Occidental
1. Footnote: Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
2. Thesis: Said’s Orientalism responds to the European and American trend in history to divide Eastern and Western or Oriental and Occidental histories by comparing the “exotic” East to the “civilized” West. This division “others” the East and asserts the West’s power and dominance over the East through European Imperialism. Said examines the foundational texts and tracks the evolution of Orientalism in history and exposes its weaknesses and biases.
3. General Scope and Content: Said’s examination of Orientalism examines political, literary, …show more content…
Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton, a systemic history of the cotton trade and globalism throughout history, has a post-colonial edge although it is not strictly within the disciple. In the midst of the statistics about cotton imports and exports, Beckert shows the necessity of “othering” people groups, especially people groups in the “Orient” for war capitalisms success. This is especially true in the case of India, the prime example of the Orient. When the American cotton market was severed from English manufacturing during the American Civil War, the British turned to India’s traditional cotton economy. The English believed they knew India and could, through political power and force, stimulate the cotton trade and make it a mirror of the trade lost in America. The Europeans believed they knew better than the Indian people, viewing them as the “other” and somewhat primitive in their approaches. The British found success as they severely punished noncompliance with British standards or subsistence farming during cotton growing seasons. Because Britain believed they “knew” India, its ability and needs, and had the power to impose strict colonialism, the British’s Orientalism and colonial actions changed the Indian social and economic …show more content…
One of them is the culturally sanctioned habit of deploying large generalizations by which reality is divided into various collectives: languages, race, types, colors, mentalities, each category being not so much a neutral designation as an evaluative interpretation. Underlying these categories is the rigidly binomial opposition of “ours” and “theirs,” with the former always encroaching upon the later (even to the point of making “theirs” exclusively a function of “ours.” Pg
Said Comps Summary
Tags: Said, Orientalism, Orientalist, Post-Colonial, “other,” “othering”, Oriental, Occidental
1. Footnote: Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
2. Thesis: Said’s Orientalism responds to the European and American trend in history to divide Eastern and Western or Oriental and Occidental histories by comparing the “exotic” East to the “civilized” West. This division “others” the East and asserts the West’s power and dominance over the East through European Imperialism. Said examines the foundational texts and tracks the evolution of Orientalism in history and exposes its weaknesses and biases.
3. General Scope and Content: Said’s examination of Orientalism examines political, literary, …show more content…
Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton, a systemic history of the cotton trade and globalism throughout history, has a post-colonial edge although it is not strictly within the disciple. In the midst of the statistics about cotton imports and exports, Beckert shows the necessity of “othering” people groups, especially people groups in the “Orient” for war capitalisms success. This is especially true in the case of India, the prime example of the Orient. When the American cotton market was severed from English manufacturing during the American Civil War, the British turned to India’s traditional cotton economy. The English believed they knew India and could, through political power and force, stimulate the cotton trade and make it a mirror of the trade lost in America. The Europeans believed they knew better than the Indian people, viewing them as the “other” and somewhat primitive in their approaches. The British found success as they severely punished noncompliance with British standards or subsistence farming during cotton growing seasons. Because Britain believed they “knew” India, its ability and needs, and had the power to impose strict colonialism, the British’s Orientalism and colonial actions changed the Indian social and economic …show more content…
One of them is the culturally sanctioned habit of deploying large generalizations by which reality is divided into various collectives: languages, race, types, colors, mentalities, each category being not so much a neutral designation as an evaluative interpretation. Underlying these categories is the rigidly binomial opposition of “ours” and “theirs,” with the former always encroaching upon the later (even to the point of making “theirs” exclusively a function of “ours.” Pg