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Edward Said was one of the most important cultural figures of the late twentieth century.
In his 1978 book, ‘Orientalism’, Said made the influential argument that scholarly
writing from America and Europe presented inaccurate, misleading and stereotyped cultural
representations of the East. He argued that, ‘the Orient is the stage on which the whole
East is confined’.
Said believed these biased perceptions hindered a true understanding of Middle Eastern and
East Asian culture.
To understand Said’s theory, let’s imagine a scholarly university professor, writing
an academic report on the party scene.
For research purposes he decides to go to a party.
When he arrives, the party is in full swing. Most guests are casually dressed and dancing
to loud electronic dance music. Others are sitting around, lounging on the floor, kissing
and laughing.
The whole situation is alien to the professor. He has his own set of values and finds it
difficult to understand or appreciate the behavior of the party-goers – he can’t
identify himself with them or understand what made them who they are.
In the same way, Said argued, when Western scholars studied Eastern culture, they couldn’t
understand it, because it differed from their own.
So, they portrayed the East as exotic, enigmatic and curious – judging and romanticizing
it, without ever understanding it.
Deep down, the professor feels his values are justified. After all, he is an academic.
His distaste for the party-goers’ lifestyle confirms to him that his perspective is correct.
He publishes his report, portraying the party goers as raucous, sensual, uncultured and
unintelligent – because they deviated from his own personal values.
Just as the professor saw himself as superior to the party-goers, Said believed the West
thought its society was superior to Eastern society.
But Said went further. He thought Western scholarship held strong ties to the domineering
imperialist societies that produced it – concluding that much Western scholarship was inherently
political and intellectually dubious.
Said argued that stereotyping became a justification for the Western colonization of Eastern countries.
The West painted a picture of an Eastern world that needed civilizing. Invasion was framed
as ‘salvation’ – rescuing the inhabitants who were too lazy and too pleasure focused
to be fit to govern themselves. Said deduced that either the West is blinded by its own
failings and doesn’t recognize it is stereotyping – or it believes its own culture is superior.
Edward Said’s book became the foundational text for post-colonial studies and transformed
Middle Eastern studies. His theory still remains critically relevant today - so much so that
it has become part of our language. The term ‘Orientalism’ describes a patronizing
Western attitude towards other cultures.
A more detailed examination can be found in the MACAT analysis.