Orientalism By Vera Tolz Analysis

The notion and study of orientalism in the West reached a different understanding from an iconic book called „Orientalism“, written by Edward Said. Nevertheless, contemporary discussions have highlighted various types of orientalism in the Western world, their perception of the „East“ , frailty of epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and "the Occident“ and have moved way further than Said's description of the phenomenon.
The author, Vera Tolz, wrote this book as a study of Russian Orientology in the late imperial and early Soviet eras. The book is consists from an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, bibliography and index. Each part has a direction, clearly stated aims and a conclusive paragraph that lets the reader have a better digestion of the main terms and the context, without …show more content…
Tolz begins with introduction of the historical background and main figures involved in the study, and each following chapter covers a certain issue, giving the reader a chance to analyse the nature of Russian orientology from many different angles. For example, In first Chapter she is concerned with notions of empire and nation, Russian nation-building tendencies and regional integration. In the second chapter, Tolz discusses the perception of orientologists considering such concepts as „East“, „West“, „Europe“ and „Asia“ and argues that Rozen school did not only challenge the superiority of the west, but also succesfully promoted their critical approach among Russia‘s cultural and intellectual elites. Chapter 3 analyses the inter-relationship among political trends and academic scholarship. Chapter 4 surveys the critique of European scholarship, chapter 5 talks about input of russian orientologists to the admission of minority nationalisms as well as policy making related to non-russian ethnic