Page 217 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 19: Two Types of Orientalism—Orientalism as a Literary Theory

knowledge of cultures further to the East was very sketchy. Nevertheless, there was a vague Notes
awareness that complex civilizations existed in India and China, from which luxury goods such as
woven textiles and ceramics were imported. As European explorations and colonisations expanded
a distinction emerged between non-literate peoples, for example in Africa and the Americas, and
the literate cultures of the East.
In the 18th century Enlightenment thinkers sometimes characterized aspects of Eastern cultures as
superior to the Christian West. For example Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the
belief that it would support a rational Deism superior to Christianity. Others praised the relative
religious tolerance of Islamic countries in contrast with the Christian West, or the status of
scholarship in Mandarin China. With the translation of the Avesta by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron
and the discovery of the Indo-European languages by William Jones complex connections between
the early history of Eastern and Western cultures emerged. However, these developments occurred
in the context of rivalry between France and Britain for control of India, and it is sometimes
claimed were associated with attempts to understand colonised cultures in order more effectively
to control them. Liberal economists such as James Mill denigrated Eastern countries on the grounds
that their civilizations were static and corrupt. Karl Marx characterised the "Asiatic mode of
production" as unchanging and praised British colonialism in India. Christian evangelists sought
to denigrate Eastern religious traditions as superstitions (see Juggernaut).
Despite this, the first serious European studies of Buddhism and Hinduism were undertaken by
scholars such as Eugene Burnouf and Max Müller. In this period serious study of Islam also
emerged. By the mid-19th century Oriental Studies was an established academic discipline.
However, while scholarly study expanded, so did racist attitudes and popular stereotypes of
"inscrutable" and "wily" orientals. Often scholarly ideas were intertwined with such prejudicial
racial or religious assumptions. Eastern art and literature were still seen as "exotic" and as inferior
to Classical Graeco-Roman ideals. Their political and economic systems were generally thought to
be feudal "oriental despotisms" and their alleged cultural inertia was considered to be resistant to
progress. Many critical theorists regard this form of Orientalism as part of a larger, ideological
colonialism justified by the concept of the "white man's burden".

19.3 Orientalism in the Arts

Imitations of Oriental Styles
Similar ambivalence is evident in art and literature. From the Renaissance to the 18th century
Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only
partial success. Chinoiserie is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration
in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo
Chinoiserie, ca 1740-1770. Early hints of Chinoiserie appear, in the 17th century, in the nations
with active East India companies: England (the British East India Company), Denmark (the Danish
East India Company), Holland (the Dutch East India Company) and France (the French East India
Company). Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine blue-and-
white Ming decoration from the early 17th century, and early ceramic wares at Meißen and other
centers of true porcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares (see Chinese
export porcelain). But in the true Chinoiserie décor fairyland, mandarins lived in fanciful
mountainous landscapes with cobweb bridges, carried flower parasols, lolled in flimsy bamboo
pavilions haunted by dragons and phoenixes, while monkeys swung from scrolling borders.
Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo
German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany
tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca
1753 - 70, but sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang
evolved into a mid- Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs suited English gentlemen
as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within
mainstream "chinoiserie." Chinoiserie media included imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle)
ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table

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