Edward said : Oriantalism

Orientalism

      Edward Said’s evaluation and critique of the set of beliefs known as Orientalism forms an important background for postcolonial studies. His work highlights the inaccuracies of a wide variety of assumptions as it questions various paradigms of thought which are accepted on individual, academic, and political levels.
   The book is now being translated into 26 languages. and it required reading at many colleges and universities. This book is also one of the most controversial scholarly books of the last 30 years sparking intense debate and disagreement.

    The Orient signifies a system of representation framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien  to the West.

-What is orientalism in post colonialism

  Orientalism is 'a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient.'

Edwards interest in orientalism began for two reasons :

1) It was an immediate thing is to say the Arab- Israeli war of 1973.
2) Which has much longer history in my life was the constant sort of disparity he felt between what his experience of being an Arab was & representation of that one saw in art.

Some concepts related to orientalism

-Orientalism   gives deep information of people of middle east people about their culture and behaviour. We come to know about them yet we never meet them.


- Said point on Gramsci ‘s “ The prison Notebooks”. It make influence on himself.
He says my history is terms of other People history.
 Try to move beyond generalise own experience to others experience. It a collective and individual experience.

- Edward said write third book “ covering Islam”. He thought them as kind of trilogy. And Iranian revolution. But he see a opposite reaction. People give negative  response. They was killed American.  The television and print journalism was only show negative  side. Example film Jihad in America Television represents jihad in America, for militants Jihad is a holy war, and their main purpose is to establish an Islamic empire. Media revelling only worst side of Islam. It shows the power of media.

- “The marvels  of east” the east considered as mysterious place, full of secrets, and monster, where people believe in mysterious things, in not only India but also in Egypt, Syria. In Egypt the mysterious culture and different pyramids make the sense of horror and we relatedly we can not find Arabic world in Western countries, music or in paintings.


Thank you..