Orientalism

One of the foundational texts of postcolonial studies, Edward W. Said’s Orientalism was published in 1978. Up until this point, the term “Orientalism” was used to describe Western scholarship, thinking, and art about “the Orient,” generally Asia and the Middle East. In his book, Said interrogates both the term and ideology of Orientalism. He asserts that the West paints these cultures as exotic and “Other,” using essentialism and stereotypes to situate the West as superior and Asian and Middle Eastern cultures as simultaneously dangerous and alluring. A Palestinian scholar, Said was particularly concerned with ideas about Palestine in the Western imagination.

Orientalism’s impact was widespread; since its publication, the term “orientalist” has fallen out of favor with scholars in favor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. It cemented Said’s reputation as a scholar, and he went on to publish dozens of books, including Culture and Imperialism in 1993. He taught English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and other universities. Said passed away in 2003 of leukemia.

This study guide references the paperback edition of Orientalism published by Knopf Doubleday in 2014.

Content Warning: The source text uses terms that are considered offensive such as “the Orient,” “Orientalism,” and “oriental.” Said uses these terms to critique these concepts, and this study guide reproduces them in that critical context.

Summary

Edward W. Said’s Orientalism introduces the concept of “Orientalism,” a force that has shaped Western (Occidental) academic scholarship, cultural imagination and production, and public policy concerning the space known as “the Orient.” The Orient consists of modern geographic territories known as the Middle East and Asia, sometimes referred to as the Near East and Far East, respectively. Historically, the Orient has been situated as the opposite of the West, which is comprised of European powers and, later, the United States. Orientalism explores the hierarchal relationship between the West and East (Occident and Orient). It examines how Western dominance in the production of knowledge has and continues to influence Western intervention in the political affairs of the Middle East and Asia.

Across three chapters, each with four topical sections, Said moves through his discussion of Orientalism, addressing first its scope, then its various structures, and, finally, its most recent iterations. In the first chapter, Said addresses the scope of Orientalism as a historical practice of consolidating knowledge about the Orient into forms that can be studied and conveyed to a Western audience. While Orientalism is a force that has shaped different intellectual and political activities across the West and the Orient, its impacts could always be traced back to its consolidating tendency. However, as the Orient is a culturally diverse, politically nuanced, and highly expansive geographical space, the West constantly returns to it through their scholarship and political intervention in a persistent effort to contain it. This effort is motivated by a self-perpetuating crisis: The more the West involves itself with the Orient and professes to contain it, the more complicated the Orient becomes to the West.

In the second chapter, Said deepens his discussion of Orientalism by analyzing several cultural texts with an emphasis on Western studies of Islam. He describes how philology and anthropology played a large role in encouraging Orientalist views of Islam. By turning the study of Islam into a science of observation and description of objective reality, Western scholars and writers propagated the idea of a known Islam that was available to the general Western imagination. These ideas of Islam populated a wide range of Western cultural works, drawing on Arab and Islamic stereotypes to relay messages about Arabs and Islamic people as different, fearsome, sinful, and inferior to Europeans.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Orientalism continued to expand and take on a modernized form as a more formalized discipline in Western academic institutions. While various European powers had different cultural and political investments across territories in the Orient, their contributions to Oriental Studies shared the same values. The study of the Orient became a necessary way of stabilizing the West in the face of what appeared to be an increasingly complicated East.

In the final chapter of the book, Said offers an overview of Orientalism in the present day. With the rise of US political influence, the image and symbol of Islam and the Arab pervades American popular culture. Said argues that the historical impact of Orientalism is the creation of such popularized images in conjunction with expanding Western intervention in Arab and Islamic states. Furthermore, while Orientalism had operated previously as part of a conservative agenda, it is now propelled by a Western liberal impetus to involve oneself in every aspect of the non-Western world. As this is the current state of affairs, Said wonders how the project of this book might challenge the forces of Orientalism.