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Orientalism
Prepared by- Divya Choudhary
Course- M.A.
Semester- 3
Paper no. - 11
Paper name- Post-Colonial Literature
Enrolment no - PG15101007
Batch- 2015-17
Submitted to- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
About Author
Edward
said was born in 1935, 1 November and died in 25 September. He was a
Palestinian American literary theorist and advocate for palestailian rights. He
was university professor of English and comparative literature of Columbus
University and abounding figure in post colonialism Robert frisk desired him as
the Palestinians.
He was best known for his
books “ Orientalism” which was published in 1978.said were an influential
cultural critic and author. The book orientation placed him as an international
author. the book presented the idea of author that how western study the
eastern culture said contended that orients scholarship was continue to
inextricalsly tied to the imperialist societies that produced it making much of
the work inherently politicized, servile to power and there for suspect sad’s
oriental’s and following works proved influential in literature theory and
criticism and continue to influence in several other fields in humanities. Said
come to discuss and vigorously debate the issue of orients with scholars in the
field of history and area studies. Many of them disagreed with his thesis
including most famously beanery Lewis said tries to point out that how western
looks towards the east. In his most famous book orients, said claim a “subtle
and persistent content prejudice against arbor people and their culture” (Hetalba)
Orientalism
Orientalism Edward said is a canonical
text of cultural studies in which he has challenged the concept of oriental’s
or the difference between east and west, as he puts it he says that with the
start of European colonization the European come in contact with the lesser
developed countries of the east. They found their civilization and culture them
exotic, and established the science of orientalism, or the people from these
exotic civilizations. The main thing for the European visitor was a European
representation of the orient and it’s had a privileged communal significance
for the journalist and his French readers. American will not feel quite the
same about the orient, which for them is much more likely to be associated very
differently with the east, china and Japan mainly. Unlike the Americans, the
French and British less so the German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians
and have had a long tradition of what I shall be calling orientalism, a way of
coming to terms with the experience. The orient is not only adjustment to
Europe, it is also the place of Europe‘s greatest and richest and oldest
colonies, the source of its civilization and language, its cultural constant,
and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the other. (Manisha)
Edward said
argues that the Europeans divided the world into parts. The east and the west
or the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was
totally an artificial boundary, and it was laid on the basis of the concept of
them and us or their and ours. The Europeans used orientalism to define
themselves. Some particular attributes, and whether the Orientals weren’t the
occident’s were the Europeans defined themselves as the superior race compared
to the Orientals and the justified their colonization by this concept. They
said that it was their duty towards the ward to civilize the uncivilized ward.
The main problem, however, arose when the European started generalizing the
attributes they associated with Orientals, and started parting these artificial
characteristics associated with Orientals in their western world through their
scientific reports, literary work and other media sources. WHAT HAPPENED WAS THAT IT CREATED ACERTAIN IMAGE ABOUT THE ORIENTAS
IN THEIR European mind and doing that infused bias in the European
attitude toward the Orientals. This prejudice was also found in the
orientalists and all their scientific research and reports were under the
influence of this. The generalized attributes associated with the Orientals can
be seen even today. For example, the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people
and Islam is seen as religion of the terrorist. Edward said explains how the
science of orientalism developed and how the Orientals started considering the
Orientals as non human beings. The Orientals divided the world in to parts by
using the concept of ours and theirs. An imaginary geographical line was down
between what was ours and what was theirs. The orients were regarded as
uncivilized people and the western said that since they were the refined race
it was their duty to civilize people those people and in order to achieve their
goal, they had to colonize and rule the orients. They said that the orients
themselves were incapable of running their own government. The Europeans also
through that they had the right to represent the Orientals in the west all by
themselves. In doing so, shaped the Orientals the way they perceived them or in
other wards they were reinitializing the orient. Various teams have been sent
to the east were oriental is silently observed to the Orientals by living with
them and everything the west .This resulted in the generalization whatever was
seen by the projected to the civilized world of the west. This resulted in the
generalization whatever was seen by the oriental action of an individual.
The most important use of oriental ism to the European was that they defined
themselves by defining the Orientals. FOR EXA qualities such as lazy irrational
uncivilized crudeness were related to the Orientals and automatically the
Europeans become active retinal civilized sophisticated. Thus in order to
achieve this goal. It was very necessary for the orientalists to generalize the
culture of the orients.
Then Edward said goes
on to talk about two other scholars’ massing and Gibb. Through massing on bit
liberal with orientalist and often tried to protect their right, there was
still inherited biased found in him his work, with the changing world situation
especially after world war orientalism took a more liberal stance toward s most
of its subjects but Islamic orientalism did not enjoy this status .There were
constant attacks to show Islam as religion.
Edward said concludes his book by saying that the orientalist should not make
generalization or they should include the write perspective too, but creating a
boundary at the first place is something which should be not alone.
Conclusion:
Orientalism by
Edward W. Said is a critique of the study of the Orient and its ideas. Said
examines the historical, cultural, and political views of the East that are
held by the West, and examines how they developed and where they came from. He
basically traces the various views and perceptions back to the colonial period
of British and European domination in the Middle East. During this period, the
United States was not yet a world power and didn't enter into anything in the
East yet. The views and perceptions that came into being were basically the
result of the British and French. The British had colonies in the East at this
time; the French did not but were trying to acquire some.
Please post your comments and suggestions in the comment section.
Thank You....
Works Cited
Hetalba, Gohil. Blog. 27 November 2011.
Manisha, Savani. Blog. 24 November 2011.
<http://savanimanisha152011.blogspot.in/2011/11/edward-saids-orientalism.html>.
Assignment
Prepared from Class Notes
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