Edward Said On Orientalism

 

Edward Said On Orientalism

Thinking Activity on an ORIENTALISM By Edward Said :

     

Hello  Readers,

Here is task given by Prof. Dilip Barad sir,

 https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2016/07/edward-said-on-orientalism.html?m=1

Edward Said : 

         

       

Edward Wadie Said    was a professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.[3] A Palestinian American born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S. Army veteran.

              #  Orientalism # 

Orientalism refers to the Orient, in reference and opposition to the Occident; the East and the West, respectively. The word Orient entered the English language as the Middle French orient.

          

What is Orientalism .?

  Orientalism” is a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous. Edward W. Said, in his groundbreaking book, Orientalism, defined it as the acceptance in the West of “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny and so on.”

According to Said, Orientalism dates from the period of European Enlightenment and colonization of the Arab World. Orientalism provided a rationalization for European colonialism based on a self-serving history in which “the West” constructed “the East” as extremely different and inferior, and therefore in need of Western intervention or “rescue”.

  Orientalism involves a way of seeing the other (the Arab) that justifies an ongoing system of domination. Edward Said’s landmark analysis of the problem, Orientalism (1978), is now forty years old, and yet the phenomenon it describes feels as entrenched and normalized as it was when he wrote it."

Write brief about Edward  Said's Interview....

  # Said, in his groundbreaking book, Orientalism, defined it as the acceptance in the West of “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, 'mind,' destiny and so on.”

After Edward Said's book, the term Orientalism came to mean a specific patronizing Western European (and American) attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies, thus having a negative connotation. ... However, in his work, Edward Said states that the orient is a constructed concept.

   Orientalism is knowledge or customs specific to Asian culture, people or language. An example of Orientalism is Japantown in San Francisco. In the figurative arts, the tendency to represent eastern subjects, to assume stylistical characteristics original of the East.

   Said talked in this interview about the stereotype of Eastern countries. He said that Western world especially America always see the Eastern world as terrorist countries, their media also portraying Eastern people as barbaric in their T.V program and news. So, this kind of stereotypical perspective is very dangerous for the Eastern countries.

Said also differentiate the Imperialists like France, America and Europe and he said that French imperialism was very different than Europe and America. Further he said that French did not invaded like Spaniard invaded the new world, looking for a loot. But Nepolian invaded Egypt for the survey of Egypt while Europe invaded the new world looking for loot and also America looted many Easter countries because of the oil through the arm force.

Palestine is a small region of land that has played a prominent role in the ancient and modern history of the Middle East. The history of Palestine has been marked by frequent political conflict and violent land seizures because of its importance to several major world religions, and because Palestine sits at a valuable geographic crossroads between Africa and Asia.