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, lOMoARcPSD|2668334
After reading this compact summary, you will understand the core concepts of the entire book. 4
pages and all chapters discussed.
Orientalism by Edward Said is a canonical text of cultural studies in which he has challenged the
concept of orientalism or the difference between east and west, as he puts it. He says that with the
start of European colonization the Europeans came in contact with the lesser developed countries of
the east. They found their civilization and culture very exotic, and established the science of
orientalism, which was the study of the orientals or the people from these exotic civilization.
Edward Said argues that the Europeans divided the world into two parts; the east and the west or
the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was totally an artificial boundary;
and it was laid on the basis of the concept of them and us or theirs and ours. The Europeans used
orientalism to define themselves. Some particular attributes were associated with the orientals, and
whatever the orientals weren’t the occidents were. The Europeans defined themselves as the
superior race compared to the orientals; and they justified their colonization by this concept. They
said that it was their duty towards the world to civilize the uncivilized world. The main problem,
however, arose when the Europeans started generalizing the attributes they associated with
orientals, and started portraying these artificial characteristics associated with orientals in their
western world through their scientific reports, literary work, and other media sources. What
happened was that it created a certain image about the orientals in the European mind and in doing
that infused a bias in the European attitude towards the orientals. This prejudice was also found in
the orientalists (scientist studying the orientals); and all their scientific research and reports were
under the influence of this. The generalized attributes associated with the orientals can be seen even
today, for example, the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people; and Islam is seen as religion of the
terrorist.
Here is a brief summary of the book:
Chapter 1: The Scope of Orientalism
In this chapter, Edward Said explains how the science of orientalism developed and how the
orientals started considering the orientals as non-human beings. The orientals divided the world in
to two parts by using the concept of ours and theirs. An imaginary geographical line was drawn
between what was ours and what wastheirs. The orients were regarded as uncivilized people; and
the westerns said that since they were the refined race it was their duty to civilize these people and
in order to achieve their goal, they had to colonize and rule the orients. They said that the orients
themselves were incapable of running their own government. The Europeans also thought that they
had the right to represent the orientals in the west all by themselves. In doing so, they shaped the
orientals the way they perceived them or in other words they were orientalizing the orients. Various
teams have been sent to the east where the orientalits silently observed the orientals by living with
them; and every thing the orientals said and did was recorded irrespective of its context, and
projected to the civilized world of the west. This resulted in the generalization. Whatever was seen
by the orientals was associated with the oriental culture, no matter if it is the irrational action of an
individual.
The most important use of orientalism to the Europeans was that they defined themselves by
defining the orientals. For example, qualities such as lazy, irrational, uncivilized, crudeness were
related to the orientals, and automatically the Europeans became active, rational, civilized,
sophisticated. Thus, in order to achieve this goal, it was very necessary for the orientalists to
generalize the culture of the orients.
Another feature of orientalism was that the culture of the orientals was explained to the European
audience by linking them to the western culture, for example, Islam was made
into Mohammadism because Mohammad was the founder of this religion and since religion of Christ
