Orientalism by Edward Said

Edward Said and Orientalism

Edward Said

His full name is Edward Wadie Said. He was born on 1st November 1935- in Jerusalem. He died on 25th September 2003.

He was Palestinian American academic, political activist, and literary critic who examined literature in light of social and cultural politics.

He was also a proponent of the political rights of the Palestinian people and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Orientalism

Oriental: a study of East (North Africa, Indians, Negros, Asia, Middle East)

Occident: a study of West (white people)

Orientalism is a term or a book introduced by Edward Said in 1978.

So, in his book ‘Orientalism’ we can see that; “how West represented the history of the East according to their own point of view”. For instance, people observed only such things that the West has presented to them, which means it is like a lens. Thus, the West showed that the East is inferior, irrational, terrible, domestic etc. Therefore, this concept of the West about the East is called Orientalism. Moreover, he tells us how the West has shown people of the East to the rest of the world with the help of their literature. In short, Orientalism refers to the concept that how the West has introduced us according to their own lens especially in their culture, instead of showing how the West has suppressed and colonized the people of the East. READ MORE…