Orientalism: Interview of Edward Said
Here I share my views regarding task
on Orientalism.
1) Orientalism revolutionized the study of the Middle East and helped to create
and shape entire new fields of study such as Post-Colonial theory as well
influencing disciplines as diverse as English, History, Anthropology, Political
Science and Cultural Studies. Professor Said's contribution to how we
understand this general process of what we
could call stereotyping has been immense. The aim of this program is to explore
these issues through an interview with him. He starts by discussing the context
within which he conceived Orientalism.
2) The central argument of Orientalism is that the way that we acquire this
knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that
reflects certain interests. That is, it is highly motivated. Specifically Said
argues that the way the West, Europe and the U.S. looks at the countries and
peoples of the Middle East is through a lens that distorts the actual reality
of those places and those people. He calls this lens through which we view that
part of the world
Orientalism, a framework that we use to understand the unfamiliar and the
strange; to make the peoples of the Middle East appear different
and threatening.
3) Professor Said's analysis of Orientalism isn't just a description of its
content but a sustained argument for why it looks the way it does. It's an
examination of the quite concrete, historical and institutional context that
creates it. Specifically Said locates the construction of Orientalism within
the history of Imperial conquest. As empires spread across the globe
historically the British and the French have been the
most important in terms of the East. They conquer not only militarily but also
what we could call ideologically.
Orientalism makes this general process more formal in that it presents itself
as objective knowledge. Said identifies Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in 1798 as
marking a new kind of imperial and colonial conquest, that inaugurates the
project of Orientalism.
4) In American Orientalism The differences between different kinds of
Orientalisms are in effect the differences between different experiences of
what is called the Orient. Edward said signify that mean the difference between
Britain and France on the one hand and the United States on the other, is that
Britain and France had colonies in the Orient. So difference between British
and French Orientalism on the one hand and the American experience of the
Orient on the other is that the American one is much more indirect, much more
based on abstractions.
5) Edward said draw on work of Antonio Gramsci,
“Therefore the task at the outset, is to try to compile an inventory,” in
other words to try and make sense of it. And this seems to me to be the most
interesting sort of human task. It's the task of interpretation. It's a task of
giving history some shape and sense, for a particular reason, not just to show
that my history is better than yours, or my history is worse than yours.
Thank you.....
1) Orientalism revolutionized the study of the Middle East and helped to create and shape entire new fields of study such as Post-Colonial theory as well influencing disciplines as diverse as English, History, Anthropology, Political Science and Cultural Studies. Professor Said's contribution to how we understand this general process of what we
could call stereotyping has been immense. The aim of this program is to explore these issues through an interview with him. He starts by discussing the context within which he conceived Orientalism.
2) The central argument of Orientalism is that the way that we acquire this knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests. That is, it is highly motivated. Specifically Said argues that the way the West, Europe and the U.S. looks at the countries and peoples of the Middle East is through a lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and those people. He calls this lens through which we view that part of the world
Orientalism, a framework that we use to understand the unfamiliar and the strange; to make the peoples of the Middle East appear different
and threatening.
3) Professor Said's analysis of Orientalism isn't just a description of its
content but a sustained argument for why it looks the way it does. It's an examination of the quite concrete, historical and institutional context that creates it. Specifically Said locates the construction of Orientalism within the history of Imperial conquest. As empires spread across the globe historically the British and the French have been the
most important in terms of the East. They conquer not only militarily but also what we could call ideologically.
Orientalism makes this general process more formal in that it presents itself as objective knowledge. Said identifies Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in 1798 as marking a new kind of imperial and colonial conquest, that inaugurates the project of Orientalism.
4) In American Orientalism The differences between different kinds of Orientalisms are in effect the differences between different experiences of what is called the Orient. Edward said signify that mean the difference between Britain and France on the one hand and the United States on the other, is that Britain and France had colonies in the Orient. So difference between British and French Orientalism on the one hand and the American experience of the Orient on the other is that the American one is much more indirect, much more based on abstractions.
5) Edward said draw on work of Antonio Gramsci,
“Therefore the task at the outset, is to try to compile an inventory,” in
other words to try and make sense of it. And this seems to me to be the most interesting sort of human task. It's the task of interpretation. It's a task of giving history some shape and sense, for a particular reason, not just to show that my history is better than yours, or my history is worse than yours.
Thank you.....
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