Orientalism
Edward Said's 1978 critique of how the West represented the Middle East and Asia.
At a glance
Key ideas
Three meanings, Knowledge and power, Representation from texts …
See all 4Criticism
Bernard Lewis, Ernest Gellner, Robert Irwin …
See all 5Connections
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Said uses Orientalism for the Western habit of depicting the East as different, inferior and unchanging.
- He argues that Western scholarship on the East was bound up with the empires that produced it, so it cannot be taken as neutral.
- He distinguishes three meanings: an academic field, a style of thought dividing East from West, and an instrument of domination.
- His examples include Flaubert and British and French Orientalists.
Why it matters
- It is a foundational text of post-colonial studies and reshaped literary theory and Middle Eastern studies; its arguments are still contested.
Key facts
- Author
- Edward Said1
- Published
- 19781
- Later additions
- An Afterword (1995) and a Preface (2003)1
- Influence
- A foundational text of post-colonial studies1
Key ideas
-
Three meanings1
An academic tradition, a style of thought dividing Orient from Occident, and a political instrument of domination.
-
Knowledge and power1
No knowledge is pure; Orientalist knowledge was shaped by imperial power.
-
Representation from texts1
The West's picture of the East rested on Western texts, discounting how the East described itself.
-
Since antiquity1
He traces the pattern back to Aeschylus's The Persians (472 BC).
Criticism
-
Bernard Lewis1
Called the thesis "anti-Western".
-
Ernest Gellner1
Said the claim of 2,000 years of Western domination ignores the Ottoman threat to Europe.
-
Robert Irwin1
Argued Said lumped together writers of different centuries and genres.
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Sadiq Jalal al-Azm1
Argued it repeated the essentialism it criticised.
-
German scholarship1
Critics noted it gave little attention to German Orientalism.
Connections
Written by
Links
Sources
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