Orientalism

a coming of age narrative; it is also a rebuttal against Orientalism. Orientalism, as defined by Edward Said in his book, Orientalism, is a western construction of the east that is both a product of western imperial ideas and a justification of western superiority both culturally and morally. While Orientalism…

The lack of a single “truth”, may make people more likely to inquire on the behaviour of authority figures, but also allows for the rationalization of action that, under the modern epistemology, would not have been entertained. Edward Said’ “Orientalism” states that the views of the orient (Middle Easterners) by the Occident (Europeans) are constructed in a manner to justify control through a veil of superiority over these…

This is Imperial Feminism, also known more accurately as Gendered Orientalism. This is the kind of “feminism” that centers white narratives and strips away the agency of women of color. It places the West on a pedestal of gender empowerment, and thus ignores the systemic misogyny of Western nations. It generalizes non-Western cultures. It promotes the dual image of the scary brown man and the white savior. This is the “feminism” of white people (especially, but not only, men) trying to save…

Orient served to represent a foil to Europe during the age of colonialism and imperialism – a foil so curious to Europeans, that the desire to obtain the Orient was fostered amid a time of unprecedented exploration and conquest. The birth of modern Orientalism transpired not only due to the European desire to possess a fabricated vision of the Orient, but also was supported by their self-reinforced sense of superiority, and permitted by the creation of a structure where the West assumed…

colonial empires that followed for the next six centuries. Eventually, it was believed that without proper knowledge of the people they ruled, the colonial rulers were at a disadvantage, which led to the study of the Orient and the creation of Orientalism. (Said 1979) As the conquerors of India "sought to control its subject people more fully [...] they proclaimed themselves an Indian empire" (Metcalf 2002, 439) eventually creating the Indo-Saracenic style architecture which supported…

P. 6). A Passage to India deals with many complex issues surrounding colonialism and the Orient. In accordance with Edward Said's ideas concerning what he calls "Orientalism", the concept of the Orient is something that, on one hand, was created by the West and represents a Euro-centric ideal of Eastern culture, and on the other hand is an actual place that existed long before it was given that name. The Orient moved…

Without the documentation of events and cultures which occurred and thrived in times before our own, little to nothing would be understood in the present, especially with respect to cause and effect. Why does one believe the earth is round?, and how does one distinguish right from wrong, extending further than trial and error? Many subjects have been taught to the general populous of the western world many years predating technology. Regions of the world itself were discovered by adventurous…

ethnocentrism from the west in accordance to the middle east. History is seen only by what is contemporary at the time according to the first piece by Abdullah Laroui. Within the second piece by Edward Said he is clarifying about his book over orientalism and the continuation of the same thinking that people see the middle east as a picture that does not move since it is not the same as those who are looking at it. Additionally both pieces remark about the issues of people looking from an…

“undermine the text of colonial authority as well as to install a distance from the concepts of anticolonialist theory” (Parry, 2004: 67). It was referred to as ‘colonial discourse analysis’. Postcolonial criticism emerged with Edward W. Said’s Orientalism, it acquired the name ‘postcolonialism’ in the late 1980s. It is concerned with historical, political, cultural and textual outcomes of the encounter between the West and East. Initially it aimed at reviewing critically the conditions of…

Said and the continuation of his concepts in the works of Algerian novelist Assia Djebar. He offers a contrapuntal reading of Said and Djebar, ultimately addressing the Maghrebian colonial experience which is an area which Said does not cover in Orientalism. This article is a valuable resource as it offers a critique of Said and deals with postcolonial gender/feminist studies and case studies regarding such areas of postcolonial theory will be included in the dissertation. Nelson’s book focuses…