Page 219 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

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

• When thinking about latent orientalism, I immediately thought about the frightening racial Notes
superiority constructions that lead to human genocide such as the German third Reich party
in WWII. The more I learn about the post-colonial political ramifications of racial superiority
constructions, the more I realize that the past constructions manifest themselves in different
ways. How do you think racial/ethnic superiority has manifested itself in contemporary
times?
In order to isolate the East from social movement "in the deepest sense of the word," (208) the West
feminizes the East in order to distance Oriental men from power and to conglomerate power with
only European, aristocratic men. The analogies relating the East with feminine attributes implied
an inherent weakness and dependency of the East on the West, and this mentality justified the
West overtaking geographical space in order to help the "uncivilized" Orient.
• This section immediately reminded me of corporate chains incorporating into international
spaces as symbols of civilization and progress, as if other countries could not be civilized
without them. Do you see any other contemporary relationships where one country is
feminized by the other in order to take over geographical space?
I chose the above painting to tie European dominance, feminization and geography together. I
interpret the center to be a representation of Mother England because 1) Queen Victoria was the
reigning monarch at the time and 2) qualities associated with motherhood such as charity,
selflessness, devotion, leadership, etc. reflect the Orientalist perception of the West's role in the
East. Also, I see this woman as implying a virgin sexual purity, because this polarizes England
from the Orientalist definition of Oriental women as naturally sexually charged. The way she is
reclining on top of the world with the other ethnic representations looking towards her at the
center really hits the point: England saw themselves as the center of everyone else's Universe! She
is not only at the center, but also at the top of the world, and I understand her, holding poseidon's
staff, to be a symbol of dominance, empire and control over the oceans, nature and maybe even
God.

19.5 Literary Theory and Children's Literature

Child psychology and children's literature can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution
for dealing with childhood-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it,
describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it; in short, child psychology and children's
literature as an adult style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over childhood.
Anyone distressed by these strongly critical words about our institutions for dealing with children
will be happy to hear that I have made the words up. Or more accurately, I have borrowed them:
I have merely inserted phrases relating to childhood institutions into a quotation that actually
discusses a quite different topic: Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate
institution for dealing with the Orient-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing
views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it; in short, Orientalism as a Western
style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. (Said 3) I came upon the
original quotation in Edward Said's Orientalism, a brilliant investigation of European attitudes
towards Arabs and Asians. Said works to reveal that what we call "the Orient" has little to do with
actual conditions in the East-that it is more significantly a European invention that has had a
powerful influence of how Europeans have not only thought about but also acted upon the East.
As I read through Said's powerful descriptions of the history and structure of Orientalism, I was
continually astonished by how often they suggested to me parallel insights into our most common
assumptions about childhood and children's literature. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so astonished:
after all, Jacqueline Rose's influential discussion of "the impossibility of children's fiction" works
from the premise that children's literature is a form of colonization.1 Indeed, an exploration of the
parallels between Said's descriptions of Orientalism and our representations of childhood in both
child psychology and children's literature reveals a number of interesting things.

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