Orientalism Summary

Introduction

"Orientalism" is a book written by Edward W. Said in 1978; Edward Said was a Palestinian American professor at Colombia University. He was born in the United States of America in 1935. Edward Said during his work at Colombia University in the mid-late 20th century, wrote this book, he wrote this book to highlight the narratives of Western scholars which he found that, were dominating the "East" throughout history; in his terms, "East" was the geographical territory consists of North Africa, Middle East, and Asia while the "West" was considered as great European powers, nowadays known as North America. In the following explanation, we will get a review of Orientalism, especially drawing out the reality of this book, there are several weaknesses in his theories, and he seeks to criticize East and West and treat both as unchanging and unvaried categories.

Orientalism Definition

The writer Edward W. Said has defined Orientalism in so many ways. Let's talk about them:

1. In the writer's opinion, Orientalism can be considered as a style of thought defined on the bases of ontological and epistemological; the difference is made between them 'the Orient' and 'the Occident'; the writer argues that his explanation underlines the domination of the Occident over the Orient.

2. According to the writer, 'Orientalism' is an educational topic of research in which the researcher or learner investigates, writes, learns, and teaches about the Orient.

3. Orientalism can be defined as a corporate organization that deals with the Orient that began in the 18th century.

In particular, Orientalism is a style of the West dominating, restructuring, and having control over the Orient (the East), and saying that it is a typical saying in term Orient that is based on its special place in European Western Culture and their experiences. Expressing the above statement, the Middle East is unchangeable, still, and it cannot define itself, so the West took leadership to itself to represent the Orient of the East, even by exploiting it. The main goal of Orientalism is to lead (control) over Orient and take their freedom to raise their voice against the West; that is the thinking of Western representation of the Orient.

Definition of Orientalism as a Recitation in Edward W. Said Opinion

The writer describes the definition of Orientalism as a Recitation by taking inspiration from the French philosopher "Michel Foucault"; he says that recitation (discourse) is a collection of thoughts that rule the knowledge gained by a person; this gained knowledge is narrated by presupposed ideas and beliefs, so a discourse or a recitation is the outcome of interception between knowledge and power, which is connected in an infinity loop that never ends, in Michel's point of view knowledge is power and gaining knowledge is one of the ways to gain power.

The writer, following the concept of Michel Foucault, also gives importance to the concept of the relation between power and knowledge; the writer says that a person cannot conclude the vast, organized discipline by which European civilization was able to construct and organize their Orient politics, imaginatively, sociology, ideology, and military at the time of post-enlightenment period.

Summary of Book 'Orientalism'

In this book, the writer described his arguments and analysis in three large phases; let's discuss these three phrases one by one.

Phase 1: Orientalism's Scope

The writer coved all the aspects of the subject in phase one of his book Orientalism in terms of the time period and historical experiences; besides this, it also provides the subject knowledge in terms of political terms and philosophical terms. The writer provided an overview of pre eighteenth century, where he writes about the invasion of Napoleon in Egypt in 1798 and its effect on social and political forms of Egypt; he said that at that time, Egypt was considered a textual universe for the West, he also describes that the Western Orientalists had a very eager interest in classical Eastern Civilizations compared to nowadays.

Phase 2: The Structures of Oriental and Restructuring it

In this phrase, the writer addresses the build-up of modern Orientalism by giving a vast chronological (by the time of occurrence) description of events; he also tried to address the description of other poets, artists, and scholars to provide the structure of Orientalism at that time. The writer gave an overview of the English customs and French Customs of study of Muslims Near East during the nineteenth century to World War I. To provide the structure of Orientalism at that time, he used the work of English Orientalists like Edward Lane's work in the early 19^th century, 'Manner and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836)', and French Orientalists like Sylvester de Sacy.

Phase 3: Orientalism in Modern Times

This phrase begins at the interval where the ancestors of Orientalism had left off; it happened around 1870; this time period is commonly known as colonial expansion into the Orient (Eastern parts), which ended up in World War - 2. The last session of this phrase highlights the shift of leadership from English and French to Americans; it can also be considered as the representation of the modern social and intellectual realities of Orientalism in the USA. The writer starts this chapter by explaining Orientalism in the 1920s and 1930s. To explain these theories, the writer reviews the careers of leading Islam cists of that era, like English historian Hamilton Gibb and French scholar Lovis Massignon; the writer took notes from the lecture of Humilton Gibbs (director of Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University), particularly his view on the 'thinking of Arabian People' and the ' hatred for the Muslim from the concept of rationalism,' which refer to Islam as Mohammedanism.

The writer, Edward Said mentioned a title 'A Brief Summary by Edward Said, 'describes the post World War 2 Orientalism, as the USA became the leading of the activities which regards to East (Orient); he describes that the highest educated persons in their fields were in the lead to replace the linguist, the writer examines and explained the roles of these 'area specialists' of East.

The writer defines four categories to eternalize the dynamics of Orientalism in the representation of Arabs and Islam, and these four categories are:

1. The Representation of Social Science and Popular Image
2. Policies for Public Relations
3. Merely Islam
4. To watch the Orient as an Imitation West

First Category: The Representation of Social Science and Popular Image

In this explanation, the writer describes the representation of social science and popular images of the East (Orient); he describes that the handling of Arabs and Islam with the help of 'area specialists' is foreshadowed and generally negative as they derive from the shifting of the well known anti- Semitic animus from Jews to Arabs, he also claimed that the academic evidence shows the negative image of this handling, the images are metamorphic ally shows the negative caricatures of Arabic and Islamic cultures.

Second Category: Policies for Public Relations

In this explanation of the second category of distortion of Islamic and Arabs cultures, the writer describes the American public relations policies; in this policy, the present-day scholars try to eternalize the traditions set by European Orientalists, for example, the racist propaganda and recitation of Earnest Renan in the year 1840, he provided evidence to his statement on the work of Gustave von Grunchbaun; he was a German Orientalists who entertained a toxic theory for Islam, the writer also finds this propaganda and theories in other Orientalists: Some conclusions of the second category.

1. The ultimate difference between Orient (inferior and aberrant) and Occident (inferior and superior).
2. The eminence of ablation regarding the Orient in opposition to direct proof from the present Orient itself.
3. The opinion that the Orient is destined to be controlled and dominated.

Third Category: Merely Islam

The writer labels 3rd category of modern Orientalist representation as Merely Islam; he disrespects the so-called implicit incapability of Muslims Near Orient to be considered as rich persons as West; he also explains the view of main political scientists; while explaining this view Muslim mind has the ability to do four out of eight thought process of humans, he also adds to this the guess of the president of Middle East Studies Association that 'as the Arabian language is only for decoration, the Arabs are simply unable to think true thought.'

Fourth category: To watch Orient as an Imitation West

In this 4th category, the writer explains the present Western Orientalists' assumption, they assume that Orient is an Imitation West; he also describes their attempt to encourage the Easterners to compare themselves with the standards of the Western and try to get close to their standards, the writer apologizes that the present Orient has accepted the bait and on his way to its own Orientalising.

The writer boosts his explanation of Orientalism by describing the positive effect of the concept of reliable scholarship in the area of Orientalism; he puts his hope in the work of Arabian and near Orient people who are working honestly, which is probably done by scholars who are loyal to defining disciplined intellectual and not to an area like Orientalism that defines geographically, canonically.

Defects and Imperfections in Edward Said's Orientalism

Handling the concept of Orientalism in "Edward Said's Orientalism"

The writer explained in his book that Orientalism was not the outcome of colonial expansions but was the strategy and knowledge by which colonialism was spread; the writer defines the vision of the Orient existed from the ancient Greeks, however in context with colonial times, Orientalism was recitation bond in the traditions of texts, researches, writers, and conceptualization, the writer presented this by bringing the example of Persians who tried to create Orient, Yet, the writer explained that it is moderately fresh that Orientalism has become a science or an enhanced knowledge; the writer mentioned two eighteenth-century intellects who led the transition of Orientalism from literary to scientific knowledge, from which one is William Jones and other is Abraham Hyacinth Anquetile - Duperron; these two scholars carry Orientalism out of its literary roots and replace it with a scientific and explainable theory, their explanations was no longer on the statement on the exotic but rather on the sense of it, but According to the writer, the gained knowledge from the Orient's scientific studies led to taking control and manipulation of the Orient; he also gave an example to prove this statement by bringing the speech of Lord Balfour, which he gave in the House of Commons in 1910; in that speech, the Lord Balfour height lighted the involvement of British in Egypt, so by this, we can conclude that knowledge is power. The common guess is that the Orientalist has better knowledge of the Orient than Orientalism; this overpowered inheritance attitude leads to the indispensable and logical outcome of ingurgitating the Orient under his power.

Edward Said's Idea of Orientalism

The main idea of the book Orientalism is the knowledge of the East is constructed not by accurate facts but by assuming constructs, these constructed images of 'Eastern Society' as basically similar and share features that the Western Society does not have, so this prior knowledge frame out the Orient as the disaccord of West. The writer said that this knowledge is constructed by the literary vision and historical inscriptions, which are usually limited in virtue of their judgment of the genuineness of life in the Parts of Middle East.

The writer also claimed a persistent Eurocentric preassumption in opposition to Arabic and Islamic culture and there people, he adds that a long custom of a wrong and eccentric image of Asian and the Middle East in the Western tradition has presented as an inherent justification for America and Europe's colonial and imperious goals, the writer also denounced those Arabic elites who practiced in the initialization of the American and British Orientalists' idea of Arabic culture, notwithstanding he restricted his explanation to the institutional study of the history and traditions of Middle Eastern Asia and Africa, he claimed that Orientalism is an important dimension of present political and intellectual culture.

Edward Said's Discussion of Orientalism

The writer restricted his explanation of institutional Orientalism to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; the 1st Orientalists in the nineteenth century interpreted the Orient in the English language, and these translations were especially backed on the assumption that an effective colonial success required knowledge of the conquered people; this representation of knowledge as power and authority is displayed throughout the book. With the knowledge of the Orient, the Occident came to obtain it. Thus, the Orient becomes an object to observe, study, and see; on the other hand, Orientalist scholars become the subject, the students, and the observer. The writer explains that the Orient and Occident together work in contradiction to one another; the word and construction of the 'Orient' shows a negative image of the Western tradition; it is because of Orientalism that the Orient is not (was not) a free subject of thoughts and action.

Orientalism and Domination

The discussion that the writer took most of the time in explaining and developing examples in Orientalism (book) was that Orientalism was not subject to study as it is shown; on the contrary, it created a field in which support for Occidental's political and traditional supremacy could be implemented on Orient, he tried to show how Orientalism came into existence as the corporate and doctrine educational institutions for practicing Western supremacy of the Orient. The way by which the Orientalists achieved this was the brand of what they called Orientals, as mentioned down class in culture and personality to their European partner. The politically powered countries take this as their shield to justify their colonial expansions.

Racism and Edward Said's Solution

The wrong essentialism of Orientalism was and is inevitable for any scholar from the West; the writer said, "No scholar, not even a Massignon," can oppose the pressure on him or her of this country or of the institution in which he or she works. As for the solution, the writer hopes that it is his work (book) that will help the world to get out of the bonds that Orientalism has kept and held the world; the new generation will break these bonds through new studies of cultural histories and experiences.

Review Points

Let's talk about "essentialism" before we go to the main content, how the writer defined the relation between Foucauldian and Gramscian on the bases of his theories. Cartwright defines these terms as the doctrine that is among the quality in which some of those are essential, and some of those are just accidents. This implies that essentialism is something that is a specially defined point of something that exists, and those points always will be there across time in all contexts and variations. Let us understand this by an example, number nine (9) will always be greater than number seven (7), and this will be a universal truth no matter in which way we put this thing, like nine (9) apples will always be greater than seven (7) all apples, and nine (9) books will always be greater than (7) books, there are so many examples to understand this, if we understand essentialism in the form of numerical numbers and in some concept of science, this has remained mostly uncontroversial and uncontested, here the main problem arises when we try to understand human behavior by essentialist notation.

The writer tries to merge the representation of essentialism with Foucault's assumption showing that there is not anything as an object of reality; he says that there is not any way to separate the scholar from the fact that they are involved in the world. The says that the point of view of Eastern countries kept mostly in the West is one ancient, eroticized and shows a less rational race of people; by showing, this writer wants to wind the thought of Western paternal eminence and the need for interference, this is the outcome of the personal biases and imagination by those scholars who study about the region done consciously and subconsciously.

In addition, this discoursed essentializing becomes very dangerous when added to leadership; this concept was adopted by the writer from Gramsci, which defines a chain of imaginary plan kingship of a class over another lower class. In the writer's opinion, Orientalism is caused by leadership discourse; this essentialist imagination of Western kingship over Eastern culture performs the ruling world powers and is articulated everywhere in all types of discourse that involves research, literature, and conversation in both ways, in order to and due to, eternalize the power of these dominating groups, and hence writer orientalism is an unconnected frame which allowed an excuse for Western harassment and domination of the East for gaining things by his leading authorities.

Writer's Thinking

This book "Orientalism" has provided a great conciliation of post-positive institutional writing, which is impossible without its critique, probably the highest well-known criticism of Bernard Lewis. Bernard Lewis claimed that Edward W. Said was linked with the Nazis, which can be dangerous to present-day scholarship; he mentioned that in his book written in 1982, he mentioned that Edward Said represented Western scholars as evil in his book Orientalism; this was later purified and intellectual rigor in his accounts. In Lewis' point of view, Said's account was a simplified version of the West, which was represented through an ideologically changed tale or story well disposed of its own mansion. But in Said's opinion, the same ideological inspiration was accurate in Lewis' opinion; on this topic, both scholars came to loggerheads.

On Further reading the book to a more nuanced point, drawing away from polemical outrage at the connections writer and wider ideological conspiracy, it looks in more depth at the theoretical and methodological shortcomings of his work while recognizing its positive effect, for instance.

Major Claims in Orientalism

There are four major claims that are made by the writer in his book Orientalism.

1. Orientalism was not a subject to study as it is shown; on the contrary, it created a field in which support for Occidental's political and traditional supremacy could be implemented in Orient.
2. Orientalism was, in fact, defined itself through the reflection in a mirror of the East despite studying it.
3. The concept of essentialist thinking was a wrong way of studying different people and their cultures; the writer also defied the terms Orient and Occident, but still, he used them to frame the argument.
4. The Orientalists scholars are the outcome of the culture in which they study; due to this, they represent the 'others' as wrong.

Conclusion

The Book 'Orientalism by Edward Said dismantles the Western representation of the East as exotic, backward, and inferior. It exposes the power dynamics inherent in the construction of knowledge and calls for a more nuanced understanding of different cultures, challenging the dominant Western narrative and advocating for dialogue and mutual respect.