Orientalism
Author: Edward W. Said
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In this highly acclaimed seminal work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering Orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation—a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the ‘otherness’ of Eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West’s romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. In the Afterword, Said examines the effect of continuing Western imperialism. Said also discusses power and knowledge in the context of scholarly and popular thinking, throwing light on the European outlook of the Islamic Arab world. There are three chapters in this book, and they include The Scope of Orientalism, Orientalist Structures and Restructures, and Orientalism Now. In the first chapter, he explains a number of definitions to explain what Orientalism means. Said also utilizes the literary works of Western figures such as Shakespeare, Byron, Henry Kissinger, Dante, Napoleon, Chaucer, and Arthur James Balfour, who regarded the East as inferior. The second ch...
