Orientalism' by Edward W.

Said is a critique of Western construction of the Orient as a place

of mystery and exoticism. It explores the discourse and practice of Orientalism in literature,
academia, and politics, exposing its role in perpetuating colonialism and imperialism.

Edward Said, a Palestinian American professor of literature, published Orientalism in 1978,

and it is widely regarded as one of the most influential texts for postcolonial studies. In it,
Said examines how the colonial powers of France and Britain constructed a notion of the
“Orient” and its peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The “Orient” was, broadly,
supposed to encompass regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

Orientalism constructs an image by way of discourse – through representations in language,

in books, in institutions, in art and in any number of cultural practices. It’s important to note
that as Said describes them, this “Orient” and the “Orientals” who live in it have no real
counterparts in reality; they are a complete (Western) fantasy. But the fact that they are
imaginary doesn’t change the fact that they can have very real material consequences, as they
did for colonized peoples and colonized lands. The Orientalism Said delineates is both a part
of what led to colonialism and the means by which it was justified. As he puts it, “To say
simply that Orientalism was a rationalization of colonial rule is to ignore the extent to which
colonial rule was justified in advance by Orientalism” (39).

The discourse upon which Orientalism is built is fundamentally concerned with the
construction of binary oppositions. This is a term Said takes from linguistics, and it describes
the idea that people understand things in terms of what they are not. Orientalism served the
construction of the binary opposition of European/”Oriental”. This allowed the European to
understand himself (and in this case, it mostly was an assumed him) as everything he
constructed the “Oriental” as not being. For eg. the European was rational and virtuous etc,
because the “Oriental” was neither. This is, essentially, the process of othering; the
construction of an “us” and a “them”. This constructed superiority then calls for, and justifies,
that European colonizers should rule over colonized peoples. In this way, it is, finally, all
about power.
The relationship between power and knowledge is essential to what Orientalism does. It
constructs the “Orient” and “Orientals” as objects of its knowledge production. Europeans
thus presumed the power to know this thing called the “Orient”, to produce what counted as
legitimate “knowledge” about it (and the world), and the knowledge they produced about the
Orient justified that they should be in a position to produce knowledge about it, and continue
to be “authorities” over it.

There are certainly also problems with Said’s Orientalism, which is, after all, hardly hot off
the presses. Amongst them, that he recognises neither resistance from within the so-called
Orient, nor from within the West. All the same, it is a study that has had a profound effect on
the shaping of postcolonial studies, and understandings of how Otherness has been
constructed.

These tropes form a part of what Palestinian-American intellectual and activist Edward Said
called Orientalism. His seminal 1978 book of the same name explores the ways Western
experts, or “Orientalists”, have come to understand and represent the Middle East.

Said shows how Orientalist writings and ideologies actively shape the world they describe,
and how they perpetuate views of Middle Eastern people as inferior, subservient, and in need
of saving. As a result, these often racist or romanticised stereotypes create a worldview that
justifies Western colonialism and imperialism.

The term “Oriental” was often used to describe any person or group of people east of Europe,
usually from Arab and/or Islamic countries. Like “the Orient”, this term reduces a variety of
peoples to a discrete set of traits and temperaments.

The peoples of the Middle East are often portrayed as weak, barbaric and irrational.
Westerners, in comparison, are made to seem strong, progressive and rational. This style of
thinking, in which East and West, or Orient and Occident, are placed into a mutually
exclusive binary, is central to Orientalist thought.

Said stresses that Orientalism sustains its power: through repetition. Orientalist ideas,
stereotypes and approaches have been renewed and reiterated over the past two centuries, and
we can still see them in circulation today.

Said begins Orientalism by explaining how Orientalism is defined within three different
contexts. Academically, the term refers to the act of studying or otherwise engaging with the
Orient. In a more informal context, Orientalism is a way of thinking about the Orient when
contrasted with the Occident—the West. Finally, Said evokes Michel Foucault's concept of
discourse to describe how historically, Orientalism is a specifically "Western style for
dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient." He states his goal in
writing Orientalism is to describe how the concept of Orientalism was constructed
historically, to serve French and British imperialist agendas, and how Orientalism is
constructed today. His focus is on describing the framework for the creation and perpetuation
of the concept of Orientalism.
After defining Orientalism and laying out his thesis, Said moves to a discussion of the
assumptions behind his work. He clarifies that while the concept of Orientalism is
constructed, the Orient itself is, in fact, a real location. Secondly, to study the Orient means,
inherently, the need to study the power dynamics between the Orient and the Occident. He
says that both Finally, while Orientalism is a construct, it has very real consequences for the
orient and Occident are man made. Orient is not easily subject to change because of
hegemony, that condition when "certain cultural forms predominate over others."

While Orientalism is not inherently a political text, the subject necessitates a discussion of
politics as Orientalism is both a cultural and political construct. A large array of literature
exists on the Orient. However, Said chooses to frame his work within the confines of how
Orientalism has been shaped by the French, British, and Americans
The Introduction attempts to define the term Orientalism, contextualize the work, and lay out
the inherent biases of the author. Said claims his work is primarily a humanistic text and uses
anthropological methodology to formulate his argument.
In his definitions of Orientalism, Said makes clear that the concept is a construct, or a
framework of thinking created by outside agents. Said claims Orientalism has been created
through the domination of one culture, the Occident, over another, the Orient. However, he
emphasizes that Orientalism is a cultural construct and has very real implications for the
interaction between the Orient and the Occident.