Hist 4339

Orientalism

Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979)

How to Read a Book by its Cover

• Front cover: images, blurbs

• Back cover: blurbs

• Table of contents

• Index

• Introduction

• Conclusion

• First and last paragraphs, sentences

• Book reviews

• Note taking

Said’s Theory of Orientalism

• What is Orientalism?

            ◦ An academic field

◦ A style of thought based on a distinction between the Oriental and “us”

            ◦ A Western style for having authority over the Orient

• Where is the Orient?

◦ In Orientalists’ heads

◦ Originally, India and the Middle East

◦ Could also be all of “Far East”—India, Japan, China, etc, & the “Muslim world”

• What are the characteristics of “Orientals,” according to Said’s theory?

◦ Said argues that Orientalists portrayed Orientals as lying, gullible yet cunning, lazy, incapable of understanding order, irrational, depraved, childlike

◦ While, he says, Orientalists saw themselves as full of clarity, directness, nobility, maturity, rationality

• Orientalist thinking based on texts that represent accepted scholarly understanding

• Overall, Said argues, Orientalism has less to do with the Orient than with the West

• Critiques of Said’s theory:

            ◦ Overly focused on Western views, rather than “Oriental” agency

◦ Overgeneralizes: e.g. “We can quite easily substitute ‘Oriental’ for ‘Chinese’ in what follows” (Said 254)

• Significance (So what?):

            ◦ We must understand our own biases as historians

◦ We must think about the language we use