Page 250 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes It includes most of Asia as well as the Middle East. The depiction of this single 'Orient' which can
be studied as a cohesive whole is one of the most powerful accomplishments of Orientalist scholars.
It essentializes an image of a prototypical Oriental—a biological inferior that is culturally backward,
peculiar, and unchanging—to be depicted in dominating and sexual terms. The discourse and
visual imagery of Orientalism is laced with notions of power and superiority, formulated initially
to facilitate a colonizing mission on the part of the West and perpetuated through a wide variety
of discourses and policies. The language is critical to the construction. The feminine and weak
Orient awaits the dominance of the West; it is a defenseless and unintelligent whole that exists for,
and in terms of, its Western counterpart. The importance of such a construction is that it creates a
single subject matter where none existed, a compilation of previously unspoken notions of the
Other. Since the notion of the Orient is created by the Orientalist, it exists solely for him or her. Its
identity is defined by the scholar who gives it life.
Contemporary Orientalism
Said argues that Orientalism can be found in current Western depictions of "Arab" cultures. The
depictions of "the Arab" as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest, and--
perhaps most importantly--prototypical, are ideas into which Orientalist scholarship has evolved.
These notions are trusted as foundations for both ideologies and policies developed by the Occident.
Said writes: "The hold these instruments have on the mind is increased by the institutions built
around them. For every Orientalist, quite literally, there is a support system of staggering power,
considering the ephemerality of the myths that Orientalism propagates. The system now culminates
into the very institutions of the state. To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write
with the authority of a nation, and not with the affirmation of a strident ideology but with the
unquestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by absolute force." He continues, "One would
find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda--which is what it is, of
course--were it not accompanied by sermons on the objectivity, the fairness, the impartiality of a
real historian, the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that
Orientalists. . .writing about Muslims are, by definition, by training, by the mere fact of their
Westernness. This is the culmination of Orientalism as a dogma that not only degrades its subject
matter but also blinds its practitioners."
Said's Project
Said calls into question the underlying assumptions that form the foundation of Orientalist thinking.
A rejection of Orientalism entails a rejection of biological generalizations, cultural constructions,
and racial and religious prejudices. It is a rejection of greed as a primary motivating factor in
intellectual pursuit. It is an erasure of the line between 'the West' and 'the Other.' Said argues for
the use of "narrative" rather than "vision" in interpreting the geographical landscape known as the
Orient, meaning that a historian and a scholar would turn not to a panoramic view of half of the
globe, but rather to a focused and complex type of history that allows space for the dynamic
variety of human experience. Rejection of Orientalist thinking does not entail a denial of the
differences between 'the West' and 'the Orient,' but rather an evaluation of such differences in a
more critical and objective fashion. 'The Orient' cannot be studied in a non-Orientalist manner;
rather, the scholar is obliged to study more focused and smaller culturally consistent regions. The
person who has until now been known as 'the Oriental' must be given a voice. Scholarship from
afar and second-hand representation must take a back seat to narrative and self-representation on
the part of the 'Oriental.'
Conclusion

Edward Said concludes his book by saying that he is not saying that the orientalists should not
make generalization, or they should include the orient perspective too, but creating a boundary at
the first place is something which should not be done. Said contends that the Orient, as much as
the Occident, "is not an inert fact of nature" . It is, rather, an "idea that has a history and a tradition
of thought, imagery and vocabulary that has given it reality and presence for the West" . All this
is not to say that the Orient is "essentially an idea, or creation with no corresponding reality" .

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