Page 246 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 21: Edward Said’s Crisis [In Orientalism]:
Detailed Study

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
21.1 The Scope of Orientalism
21.2 Orientalist Structures and Restructures

21.3 Orientalism Now
21.4 Influence
21.5 Summary
21.6 Key-Words
21.7 Review Questions
21.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Understand the Scope of Orientalism.
• Discuss Structures and Restructures.

Introduction
Orientalism by Edward Said is a cononical text of cultural studies in which he has challenged the
concept of orientalism or the difference between east and west, as he puts it. He says that with the
start of European colonization the Europeans came in contact with the lesser developed countries
of the east. They found their civilization and culture very exotic, and established the science of
orientalism, which was the study of the orientals or the people from these exotic civilization.
Edward Said argues that the Europeans divided the world into two parts; the east and the west or
the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was totally an artificial
boundary; and it was laid on the basis of the concept of them and us or theirs and ours. The
Europeans used orientalism to define themselves. Some particular attributes were associated with
the orientals, and whatever the orientals weren't the occidents were. The Europeans defined
themselves as the superior race compared to the orientals; and they justified their colonization by
this concept. They said that it was their duty towards the world to civilize the uncivilized world.
The main problem, however, arose when the Europeans started generalizing the attributes they
associated with orientals, and started portraying these artificial characteristics associated with
orientals in their western world through their scientific reports, literary work, and other media
sources. What happened was that it created a certain image about the orientals in the European
mind and in doing that infused a bias in the European attitude towards the orientals. This prejudice
was also found in the orientalists (scientist studying the orientals); and all their scientific research
and reports were under the influence of this. The generalized attributes associated with the orientals
can be seen even today, for example, the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people; and Islam is seen
as religion of the terrorist.
Here is a brief summary of the book, followed by a critique by Malcolm Kerr.

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