Edward Said's Theory Of Orientalism

Furthermore, the non-Indian actors dominated the “good-guy roles” while the Indian actors were almost always portrayed as the villains (Rushdie, 88). The unrealistic depictions of Indian characters continue with portrayals of them as violent rapists and background characters. These portrayals are ultimately explained by Rushdie through the theories of Edward Said to be “false portraits” and “stereotypes.” Rushdie is hereby stating that the depictions of India and its native citizens are based purely on stereotypes. This theme is also highlighted in McLeod’s analysis of Said’s work into the definitions of colonial discourse. McLeod states that “observations [were] based upon commonly held assumptions about ‘the Orient,’” rather than being based on factual representations, and

Moreover, this construction as the foreign eastern country as feminine is the typical western view of the orient. This view of the Orient is connected to Edward Said's concept of

Although Said didn’t directly look into gender orientalism he had made a great point in his article when discussing how the West view woman in an Oriental society. “[…] she never spoke of herself, and she never represented her emotions, presence or history. He spoke for and represented her. He was foreign, comparatively wealthy, male […]” (Said, Page 6). In this part Said is discussing how Western men would

Orientalism, as termed by Edward Said, is meant to create awareness of a constellation of assumptions that underlie Western attitudes towards the Eastern societies. While some of these opinions show the cultures in a positive light, the majority of them are biased and emphasise on depicting negative aspects as perceived by strangers to the Eastern culture.

He frames the sketch of this imagined community of ‘civilization’ through Orientalism concept, where the superior ‘civilized world’ is being threatened by ‘enemies’. As he puts it, this ‘Civilization’ will be defended by ‘We’ who are waging a war to save it. Therefore, the two actors are the traditional components of ‘us’ and ‘them’, as can be deduced from the following statements by him:

Islam is arguably one of the most misunderstood and relevant topics in modern Western society. Few subjects inspire such fear and hatred in so many people, especially in the United States. While the attacks on September 11th undoubtedly weigh heavily on the American psyche regarding Muslims, an examination of Islam’s long history shows that this Western wariness of the religion long predates any modern terror attack. However, while Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History certainly explores these centuries of conflict between Islam and the West, it also, more importantly, communicates stunning similarities between the ideologies and histories of both civilizations, along with ironies and hypocrisies that would give pause to even the most ardent

This type of primary source is a written document by Jonathan Lyons in which he describes Islam through western eyes. In Islam Through Western Eyes, Jonathan Lyons unloads Western propensities for contemplating Islam, directing a watchful examination of the West's great totalizing story crosswise over one thousand years of history. He watches the talk's destructive consequences for the sociologies, including human science, legislative issues, theory, religious philosophy, worldwide relations, security studies, and human rights grant. He takes after its influence on research, speeches, political system, and government approach, keeping the West from reacting viably to its most noteworthy twenty-first-century challenges: the ascent of Islamic power, the rise of religious savagery, and the growing pressure between built up social qualities and multicultural rights among Muslim foreigner populaces.

Stuart Hall’s work introduces readers to the discourse of “the West and the Rest”, and outlines how the “system of representation” it provides serves to validate the power of the Western world (186). He highlights how the dissemination of discourse about Western superiority and the comparative “otherness” of the non-Western world work to maintain power hierarchies. Hall pinpoints several historical events, from the Crusades to colonisation, as instrumental in forming a Western identity through opposition to “the

Inherited stereotypes of Muslims are dominant; Muslims are treated as savages, and the citizens of Qu’nesh are shown to be backward, illiterate, and ignorant of worldly matters. This representation serves a larger political agenda. Towards the end of the twentieth century, there was a widely shared view that Muslim countries were meant to remain under western tutelage, as much because they were profitable as because they were underdeveloped and in need of Western discipline. Be that as it may, and despite the frequent racism and aggression directed at the Muslim world, Europeans did express a fairly energetic sense of what Islam meant to them. Hence the misrepresentations of Islam – in scholarship, art, literature, music, and public discourse-

Orientalism in anthropology is the "western scholarship about the eastern world" (Said, 1978) but more importantly is the "fictional and irrational representation of the middle east by the western world" (Said, 1978) which is done to establish a sense of western superiority. In her introduction of the book, Ghannam expresses her dissatisfaction with the way Arab men are portrayed in the western "media, policy circles and some scholarly works" and aims to portray them with - to an extent - unprejudiced view of the issue. In addition, although she identifies and introduces herself being from a "middle eastern origin" (Ghannam, 2013), she considers herself among the western audience when she refers to them as "we" or considering the west "here". Therefore, no matter how much of an insider she considers herself to be, she still is looking at the orient from the perspective of a westerner and even her comparison of her daughter with Ahmed shows

The western world does not study the Orient strictly for imperialistic purposes as this can be realized by examining the arguments of Said, Lewis and Buruma. In developing his argument, Said believes that the Western world’s only intention in studying the Orient is so that it may benefit in the form of imperialism. Said is intent on making his thesis clear as he directly, and strongly, argues on page three that Orientalism is “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” Over the course of the rest of the introduction to Orientalism, Said does not sway from this conviction.

The ground breaking text Orientalism written by Edward Said widened the arena for the post-colonial thinkers to consider the text with a new mechanism in Third World context. Orientalism has developed a purported approach of binary opposition to dismantling the East/West dualism in relation to Eurocentric edifice. The focal point of Said’s study is the ‘West’ and its observation of the ‘East’. The former having all positive traits: white, brave, dynamic, civilized, cultured, educated, rich of the ‘Empire’ identifies the ‘Eastern countries’ as the ‘Other’ with all the negative attributes: black, coward, static, barbaric, natural, uneducated poor people of the ‘Colony’-subjected to their contempt. The post –colonial

The conflict between the United States and the Middle East is of great concern in the world today because of the heightened tensions in Syria, which is being terrorized by the radical Islamic group called ISIS. ISIS is not only creating conflict in the Middle East, they are also a homeland security threat to the United States because of the fear of terrorist attacks. Scholars and Theorists like Samuel Huntington have addressed the question of why states are experiencing heightened tension and have concluded that conflict in states or between states is the result of ethnic differences, namely religion and culture. Samuel Huntington’s essay, Clash of Civilizations, is extremely interesting because I always questioned what would have happened if every race were to stay in the territories they inhabited, like North America where Aboriginals settled, and the Middle East where the Arabians settled. Samuel Huntington’s essay invites you to ponder the idea that each civilization has different cultural and religious differences and that these differences clash and result in conflict between civilizations. Although Samuel Huntington’s essay is intriguing, there are misconceptions about his ideas regarding Muslims. This essay will analyze the historical misconceptions that Samuel Huntington portrays, which are his view of Muslims and Christians always being at war, his lack of knowledge of the Crusades, and his idea of “the West is the best”.

I want to research whether portrayals of Orientalism in the media are used to retroactively justify decisions such as imperialism or the Vietnam War. I chose this topic because I found Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism very thought-provoking and wondered if it can apply to contemporary society. In addition to that, I have not seen a lot of contemporary analysis on Orientalism of Southeast Asia. My initial inspiration was when I watched the film No Escape, which seemed blatantly racist and problematic. I narrowed and refined my topic by further researching the concepts of Orientalism and otherness, and considered how they could be applied to this film. Sources that have been key in defining my research topic include scholar articles on Orientalism

Orientalism is a study of language and traditions of the people and their culture in the Middle East. These studies are mostly done by people outside of the culture that is being looked at, and mostly the studies are being performed by white western men. Edward Said believed that there was a problem with the way in which other people were studying and writing about his culture. He was upset and spoke up when he wrote a booked called “Orientalism,” in his book he points out many reasons why the study of orientalism is hurting the cultures in which they are studying. The study of other cultures and countries better known as the Orient has become a popular discussion since Said’s book on orientalism was published. This paper will take a look