Edward Said - Orientalism - a Review

Edward Said - ‘Orientalism’

Edward Said’s Orientalism (1979), is a post-colonial polemic which centres its discussion upon the imperialist nations of the West referred to as ‘The Occident’ and it’s intrusion and faux-portrayal of Eastern cultures labelled ‘The Orient’. Said’s definition of orientalism varies, including a philosophical and literary context where by it’s “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction” (pg 2) between the West and East. To his own personal opinion, that it is “a Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient” (pg 3), where Orientalists have purely been a medium to serve Western imperialism. Said highlights the time period of the end 18th Century, post-Age of Enlightenment through Napoleonic conquests in Egypt and the Middle East all the way to the end of The Second World War, as he attempts to display how the (almost exclusive) Franco-British rule misrepresented the Middle East’s people and culture whilst the hegemony of the West sought to pursue colonisation for the Occident’s political and economic gain, whilst furthermore defining the Western man’s identity as a contrast to the falsely-define ‘exotic‘ Orients, emanating femininity and weakness. It is clear that the well-revered Orientalism points to flaws in the West’s perceptions and cultural-exploitation of the East, however my contention which you will momentarily read, shows how the lack of depth in Said’s analysis presents shortcomings in what could have been a balanced and informative text, but rather reads like a personal coordinated attack on the West as a whole and a priori assumptions.

My focus will be an analysis of Chapter 1 of Orientalism, titled ‘The Scope of Orientalism’, whereby the main content is divided into: Knowing the Oriental - Presenting British imperialists’ views of their duty to educate the Orient. Orientalizing the Oriental - exemplifying how academic texts and art mystified public interpretation of the East, coined “Europe’s collective day-dream of the Orient” by V.G Kiernan (pg 52). Projects - Explores the ventures of The Occident in the East, in particular Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt (1798) where Egypt was deemed in ‘Description de l’Egypte’ by Edward Lane as having a “‘natural’ role as an appendage to Europe.” Crisis - Further delves into the concept of ‘textualism’, whereby those who study the literature of Orientalism, solely comprehend the Orient through this facet of study; Said highlighting the difference between ‘expertise’ of the Orient and its true reality.