Review: Orientalism

One may quibble with the title: this is a study of Islamic Orientalism solely, of Western representations of the Near East, with little or no direct reference to Persia, India, China, Japan. Professor Said (Comparative Literature, Columbia) explains the limited focus as both methodological (coherence over exhaustiveness) and personal: he is an Arab Palestinian. But among Eastern civilizations, as he recognizes, Islam is a special case, particularly in relation to Christian Europe: a ""fraudulent,"" competing religion (doggedly miscalled Mohammedanism), a longstanding military threat, and all the more, therefore, as affront. Singularity, however, is no handicap to what is essentially a case study of Western ethno-centrism and its consequences, while the very persistence of the generalizing and dehumanizing attitudes that Said condemns, unparalleled in regard to either Africa or the Far East, argues the urgency of the enterprise. Drawing, most prominently, upon Foucault's history of pernicious ideas, Said traces the development of Orientalism from Silvestre de Sacy's fragmentation of Oriental culture into ""a canon of textual objects"" and Ernest Renan's incorporation of the fragments into the new comparative philology: ""the Orient's contemporary relevance [was] to be simply as material for European investigation."" Ascribed traits--passivity, eroticism, etc.--became fixed; travelers, ostensibly sympathetic, added exotic tales; and the presumed inferiority of Islam served as the pretext for its political domination, its supposed backwardness the excuse for economic intervention (with even Karl Marx writing of England's ""regenerating"" mission in India). Not until after World War II does Islam enter the American consciousness, and then--with Arab specialists in attendance--as ""the disrupter of Israel's and the West's existence."" Said's recent citations are devastating, and add force to his final challenge: how to avoid all categorization of one people by another? The book is redundant and not always reasonable, but bound to cut a wide swath and leave its mark.

It is an attempt made on making a bridge between the East and West and exploration of Global Fraternity which occurs when misunderstandings get removed. Edward Said made this attempt successful. Dr Valiurrahaman

Review: Orientalism

In his seminal book, Orientalism, Edward Said argues studies of the Middle East indicate structural power relations between the East and West. By implicating all academics of Middle Eastern studies ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

This is a fascinatingly interesting book. It is also a book that is virtually required reading if you are going to say anything at all about post-colonialism. Whether you agree or disagree with the ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

It took me a little while to get into Orientalism, maybe because it is dense and tightly argued, or maybe just because it made me question many of the beliefs that I held more or less unconsciously ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

critical post-colonialist work. if you read nothing else on the topic of colonialism, anti-imperialism, identity politics or post modernism, read Orientalism. said's approach is not without flaws, and ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

If you really want to understand what's going on in the world in terms of politics, this is where you should start. A complete, sobering, eye-opener experience! You may well sometimes lose yourself in ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

This was actually a required book for my college, i decided to skip it, as it was too difficult. The genre was history of ideas, in this case, orientalism, the method was deconstruction. This is a ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

There's a curious double-standard between what we expect from White guy authors compared to authors of any other background. When an author is a Native American, for example, we tend to expect their ... Read full review

Review: Orientalism

Such a great book . Read full review