Orientalism

Orientalism by Edward W. Said  

 

    Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author studies the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism.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. Orientalism is that the way that we acquire this knowledge isnot innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests.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.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

.   “Orentalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the orient dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing view of it, describing it,by teaching short orientalism as a western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the orient.”                     -Edward said.