Orientalism

Being from the “ orient” or being from an oriental country can give me the credit of saying that Orientalism has existed for centuries. Studying the orient by some humans of power (Europeans and North Americans) has been one of the most common things that have been done on the orient. Orientalists have studied all aspects of the orient including the orient’s cultural aspect, economical, political, and even simple daily life traditions. This authority that the western have over the “ orient” has a lot of critical aspects to discuss. One major argument is that why do westerns have an authority power over the “orient”? One answer could be because of the European colonization such as Britain and France and recently the United States. But even with…

The idea encompasses a vast area and includes parts of North Africa, the Near East, and sections of western Asia (Pittman). Oriental beliefs generally held by the English population and other parts of western Europe during the time of the British Empire emphasize the viewpoint that people of Oriental societies needed assistance in governing themselves and updating their culture and way of life. Edward Said speaks of this extensively in his book Orientalism, saying “Orientalism is better…

In his definition, Orientalism is not wholly concerned with anthropological or epistemological studies of the “Orient,” but with a caricatured portrayal of the people who live in these areas to demean their humanity using the powers of Western hegemony. Said states on page 6 of Orientalism “I myself believe that Orientalism is nothing more than a structure of lies or of myths… more particularly valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic power over the Orient than it is as a veridic discourse about…

Edward Said’s Orientalism and his critique of the West has been called both controversial and groundbreaking. In his book, he outlines the different ways the Western world since the beginning of time has “othered” the East and therefore taken advantage of and exploited its peoples and cultures all while serving its own imperialist schema. While I agree with the argument that the West is responsible for a number of injustices against “orient,” namely that the West created a binary division of the…

An analysis of orientalism in ‘Madame Butterfly’ and ‘Turandot Due to the integration of various forms of artistic expression and multicultural customs, opera has been loved by the majority of the people since it was published. Therefore, the same as the other art works and masterpieces, opera also would be influenced by politics and economics, even by the thoughts or minds from most people. Madame Butterfly (Puccini, 1904) and Turandot (Puccini, 1926) were two examples to illustrate how a…

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…

Orientalism is a term which indicates how the West perceives the East as the ‘other’. Edward Said published his controversial book Orientalism in 1978, which talks about how Orientalism forms an inferior Orient, in terms of knowledge and domination. Edward Said opens his introduction by mentioning the Western’s misconception about the East arguing that “The Orient was almost a European invention” (Said 1). The Orient played a significant role in the creation of the European culture and it…

Orientalism, is a book by Edward Said in which was very influential and controversial in postcolonial studies. Said redefined the term “Orientalism.” He defined it as a constellation of untrue assumptions expressing how the western attitudes toward the East were romanticized. Said starts off his book with the fact that the Orient played a key role in the “construction” of European and American culture, “the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the west) as its contrasting image, idea,…

Edward Said’s book Orientalism challenges a vast amount of scholars and their work on the Orient. Said discusses the knowledge and power, the separation of the West and East, and the obsession with the Orient. In his works he analyzes many scholars, political leaders, and military leaders justify his argument. Because Said’s work attacked years of scholarly work done by what he calls Orientalist, he received many criticisms, which would then tear apart his book just as he did. One of the larger…

The West has separated itself from the Middle East for centuries. This division is known as Orientalism which refers to the Western or Occidental views that the Middle East or Orient is inferior or different in some way. Edward Said was a scholar who studied the Western perception of the Middle East, specifically the word “Islam” through the lens of Orientalism. Said argues that this distinction between the West and the “other” is primarily reflected in Western media which generally promotes…