Introduction
Orientalism refers to a book published by Edward Said in 1978 that has become pivotal in the shaping the controversial postcolonial worldview and studies regarding the Orient or the Arab world. In this case, Orientalism refers to a concept focusing on the view of the Arab world, comprised primarily of the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, by the Eurocentric or the West cultures (Varisco). According to Said, “Orientalism” is a constellation of false assumptions that influence or underlie the attitudes and behaviors of the West towards the Middle East. Therefore, this refers to a subtle, sometimes inadvertent, and overly persistent Eurocentric prejudice against the people and the culture in the Middle East (Arabo-Islamic people). Said further makes the case that long-running romanticized images and perceptions of the Middle East and Asia in the Western culture through the popular media have served as an implicit approval or justification of the American and European imperial and colonial ambitions respectfully. At the same time, Said also equally denounces the role played by the Arab elites in the acceptance or internalization of the interpretations, worldviews, and ideas of the British and US orientalists instead of establishing the worldviews by studying the reality in the Orient with which they have a direct connection (Kent). These ideas advanced by Said have informed much of the debate and the discourse involving the role of the US and Europe in the Orient as well as the responses from some of the Arabo-Islamic cultures in the Orient and around the world as well. In this case, it is crucial to understand the significance of the “idea of Orientalism” as presented by Edward Said in contemporary Western and Middle Eastern sociocultural and political discourses (Kent). As a result, there is a need to understand the core concept of Orientalism as presented by Said and the extrapolated version of this concept by other writers and scholars in this field.
What is Orientalism?
“Orientalism” refers a worldview that exaggerates, imagines, and significantly changes the distinguishing aspects of the culture and people of the Arab world from those in the West (Europe and the US). In many instances, this view paints the cultural construct of the Arab World as dangerous, uncivilized, and exotic. Edward Said views Orientalism as the use of “the basic distinction between the West (the US and Europe) and the MENA region or the East” as the foundation of many elaborate theoretical frameworks that seek to describe the culture and the people in the Orient. Additionally, this also forms the basis for many Western epics, political accounts, novels, social descriptions of the people in Orient. Said also explains that the development of Orientalism can be dated back to the colonization of the Arab World and the European Enlightenment period (Thompson). In this case, the Europeans used Orientalism to rationalize the colonialism of the Orient basing their core argument on the self-serving history indicating that the “West” was instrumental in the construction of the “East;” therefore, the Western intervention in the East was needed.
Examples of Orientalism
In Early Europe, examples of Orientalism can be observed in the paintings and the images obtained from the 19th century World’s Fair held in the US as well the images from the early 20th century.
The 19th and 20th centuries’ artists created paintings depicting the “Arab World as a mysterious and exotic place of sand, belly dancers, and harems” (Thompson). These paintings were a reflection of a long history underscoring the Orientalist fantasies that are relevant and have continued to permeate the contemporary popular culture. Between 1830 and 1962, France colonized Algeria; during this time, the French entrepreneurs dong their businesses in Algeria created postcards that contained the images or pictures of Algerian women. These cards were subsequently distributed in France to underscore the strange, exotic and backwardness of the Algerian culture. These photographs were designed to depict a capture of the day-to-day lives of these women (Al-shamiri and Michael). However, these photographs end up relaying the perspectives, beliefs, and interpretations held by the French regarding Algerian life in the early 1900s. This example captures the essence of Orientalism because it depicts the eroticization and “exoticization” of Arab women for the pleasure of the European men (King). The photos also illustrate the fantasies of the French colonialists of gaining access to the harem and disrupting Arab women’s private spaces.
The World’s Fairs held in Chicago and St. Louis in 1893 and 1904 respectfully were instrumental in the reinforcement of the imagery depicting the view of many in the US public and institutional structure regarding the Orient (Kent). These Fairs were also crucial in indicating the crossover Orientalist mentality or views from Europe to the US.
The popular media in the West has played a massive role in embedding the Orientalist views into the culture and way of thinking. For example, films often represent Arabs as lacking intellect and inhuman in their actions. These representations are not based on empirical observations of the culture and ways of the people in the Middle East. They are imagined based on the countless Orientalist books, paintings, and popular media products that have, over time, embedded these thoughts, and made them part of the mainstream view of the Middle East in the US and Europe as well (Lewis). In the modern times, Orientalism has grown to include the issues such as terrorism into the view of the Orient. This is especially the case in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Although Edward Said does not cover this aspect, his view of Orientalism in Contemporary America or the West as a whole has continued to misrepresent the Middle East as a hotbed of terrorism and radicalization (Sobral).
Significance of Edward Said’s Orientalism Contribution
According to Said, Orientalism plays a massive role in the popular sentiment and the political and policy discourse in the West. This is especially the case in the US, where the popular media, Hollywood, and the popular political talking points have bought into the Orientalist view of the Middle East (Sobral). As a result, in many instances, this view is fundamental in the foreign policies adopted by the US and its allies in the Middle East. To understand this concept, the following quote is given by Edward Said:
In this case, the fundamental idea of Said’s Orientalism is that reality or facts do not drive the knowledge and views of about the East or the Orient in the West. Instead, they are informed by preconceived and erroneous archetypes that assume that all the societies in the Orient are fundamentally similar to each other (Nash). Most important, this view emphasizes that all the cultural constructs and the people in the Middle East are fundamentally dissimilar to “Western societies.” This means that such a priori conclusions indicate that Arabo-Islamic East is antithetical to the West in culture, religion, behavior, and attitudes. In many instances, Said points out that the core of the Eastern knowledge is established through the consumption of information, theories, and deductions of historical records and literary texts that often display limited understanding or mastery of the historical facts, cultural realities, and the aspects of life in the Middle East (Kennedy). Many other scholars in this field have supported the views of Edward Said expressed in Orientalism. For example, Said follows the work and ideas advanced by Michael Foucault in the emphasis on the relationship between knowledge and power. In this case, the predominant knowledge in the popular and scholarly thinking is crucial in shaping political discourses and foreign policy (Kennedy). In this case, the European view of the Islamic Arab world was the primary influence of the colonialism period. This mentality has continued to influence the view and conduct of the European countries towards The Middle East and North Africa. In this case, Said indicates that the “Orient” has been constructed as a negative version of the West. Antonio Gramsci, another thinker in this field, helped the thinking of Said in creating Orientalism. This is especially the case in Said’s understanding of hegemony in the pervasiveness of the Orientalist representations and constructs in European and American reporting, and scholarship (Kennedy). Said also indicates that these interpretations and representations of the East are massively influential in the West’s exercise of power over the Orient.
Edward Said’s work, Orientalism, limits its scope to the academic appraisal of the African, Middle Eastern, and Asian culture and history. However, Said argues that this concept is not just in the past, but it is a significant aspect of the modern intellectual and political structure in the West. It still provides the primary information or knowledge to many of the members of the society. Therefore, Orientalist ideas permeate the modern scholarly and political fabrics in Europe and the US as well (Kennedy). This assertion is crucial because criticisms have been advanced that Said’s work was almost exclusively based on an appraisal of 19th and 20th-century scholarships and their work. However, Said’s view of Orientalism captures an ingrained culture in the West that has based its information of the Orient on erroneous and lazy depictions of the culture and people in the East without establishing empirical studies and determinations of any of the advanced ideas. Edward Said’s work on Orientalism is almost entirely based on the 19th and 20th centuries because many of the departments and academic area studies had abandoned the appraisal of the colonialist and imperialist paradigm in their scholarships (Wu). Said cites the work by Bernard Lewis as an attempt to address the idea of the “Orient” to the “West.”; however, he indicates that this was a massive exception at the time because most of this scholarly community had abandoned this line of studies. In this case, most academic or scholarly ideas at the time focused on building the distinction between the West and the East. For example, these works could compare the Persian Empire government under democratic traditions of Athens with the Greco-Persian Wars as an approach to draw a distinction between Persians and Greeks. At the same time, such studies could not evaluate the other Greek cities that were not ruled democratically (Bryce). These comparisons were often used to establish differences between the democratic West or Europe and the undemocratic and exotic Asia or the East.
Said evaluated many comparative and historical literary works of British and French scholars targeting the people and culture in the Middle East. In this case, he concludes that their scholarly analysis reveals the power dynamic between the colonizer and the colonized. In this case, these scholarly works provide an understanding of the eroticization and exoticization of the cultures and the peoples of the Middle East (Cronin). In fact, these representations are a depiction of the attitudes and mentality of the Western societies towards the Orient. Said’s works also form a crucial foundation for the postcolonial studies and analysis of the modern relationship between the West and the Middle East. It also helps contextualize the imperialist Western attitudes to China, India, and other nations in Africa, South America, and other Asian nations as well.
Modern Orientalism
Edward Said brought the term and concept of Orientalism to the limelight of many members of the society, policy makers, and political players in the West. At the same time, it laid the foundation to evaluate and understand the behavior of specific countries towards the Orient or the Middle East in the modern times. Therefore, Said’s work provides a good lens for viewing the behavior, attitudes, and behavior of these countries such as the US and other European states towards the Middle East regarding core aspects such as terrorism as well as resources such as oil (Kennedy). In this case, Said’s work gained renewed importance in the scholarly discourses around the world in the post-9/11 era. Therefore, the book provides a critical evaluation of the postcolonial studies, knowledge of production, categories of identity and the imperial culture around the world. The book’s significance is not limited to the crucial relationship between the West and the East; it cuts across the cultural, economic, and political policies and points engagement throughout the world.
The Imperial Culture
The concept of imperialism refers to the actions of a country aimed at expanding or extending power through the acquisition of territories. At the same time, it might also comprise of the exploitation of these territories as well, which is linked to colonialism. In many cases, the concept of colonialism is considered the manifestation or expression of imperialism (Miller). In the context of Orientalism, imperialism refers to the identification of foreign lands that were named the Orient. In this case, the European powers decided that these lands did not have culture, tradition, or history that needed to be respected or persevered. In fact, the people in the Orient were considered exotic and eroticized as well. From this premise, the assumptions made by Edward Said in Orientalism reflect the mentality and attitudes that were adopted during the colonial period. In the post-colonial period, many of the stereotypes and misinformation regarding the Orient, its people and culture were preserved, and they have permeated the thought process, attitudes of the Western people (Shabanirad and Marandi). At the same time, these ideas have seeped into the scholarly and political arenas as well.
A good example is the American imperialism that is based on the US’ use of its military, cultural, and economic prowess to control or influence other countries. In this case, such actions have seen the occupation or massive benefits of the US from these countries. The involvement of the US in the Middle East has varied from time to time. It has close economic and political allies in the region. For example, the US has been allied with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer of oil, for a long time (Kennedy). At the same time, the US has unconditionally supported Israel in the region as well. The concept of imperialism is enmeshed with cultural and racial superiority as well. The race argument indicates that the West is much superior compared to the Eastern races. This Orientalism can be demonstrated by the several wars in the region that the US and other European powers have been involved in history.
The declaration of the War on Terror in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks has been the primary issue determining the view of the Orient in the West. In many instances, people hailing from the Middle East or North Africa are often viewed with suspicion of ties with terrorism or sympathizers to terrorism (Maldonado). Largely, these issues affect both people from the Middle East (race) as well as Muslims (religion). This has been a continuation of the Orientalist attitude and worldview in the West. The representation of the cultures of the Orient has also worsened with every time a terrorist attack is carried out in Europe or the US. This was followed by the invasion and “occupation” of Iraq and Afghanistan by the US and her allies. For many historians and scholars of the history of the Middle East, these invasions were like rehashing the colonialism of the region by the expansionist and imperialist European nations or empires. These invasions have also led to the depiction of the US and the Christian West as the oppressors of Islam (Kennedy). Although this might not be true, many of the terrorist groups have often used oppression and imperialism as a recruiting tool to whip people to resist the “invaders” from the West.
Politics in the West and Orientalism
The tradition division of the political ideologies in the West of right- and left-wing is crucial in evaluating the aspect of Orientalism and its growth into national policies. In many cases, right-wing politicians and people are said to be more Orientalist compared to the left-wing ideology. In this case, the political right has been described to be more interested in “otherizing” the Orient and thus separating the “exotic other” from the West or the US. In this case, the aftermath the 9/11 attacks, the US foreign policy led to the division between the good West versus the bad Islamic East (Maldonado). This notion grew into the dominant school of throughout influencing policies. This can be demonstrated by their support of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the moves to thoroughly vet the people coming from the East. For example, the new US administration under President Trump has sought to implement policies that could ban immigration from seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The core argument of these proposals is that these regions are hotbeds of terrorism. In this case, the terrorists might use the immigration system get into the country to harm the country. Studies indicate that such a case is entirely possible (Bryce). This is because immigrants have recently been used to carry out attacks in France’s Paris, Brussels in Belgium, Istanbul, and London as well. In many cases, the immigrants from the Middle East move to the West without necessarily being affiliated or sympathizing with any terrorist groups. However, they end up loathing the West through self-radicalization or experiencing isolation and discrimination in the Western society (Paschyn). Therefore, the core policies resulting in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks include the War on Terror, vetting of people coming to the US, and the compilation of a terrorist watch list.
According to Edward Said’s Orientalism, the economic development of the West acts as further prove to the Orientalists that the East ad people are lesser compared to the West. Therefore, the ethnocentric attitudes among the right wing and even centrist politicians and policy makers have to the adopted of exploitative policies in the East (Paschyn). In this case, the US and Europe can make allies and enemies out of convenience. In this case, the US had been friends with many MENA region dictators for many years because this arrangement allows the US and her allies to gain the oil and other resources from the region. It also allows the US to advance its security and strategic interests in the region as well. These attitudes have been reflected in the popular culture in the West.
Role of the Media and Popular Culture in Perpetuating Orientalism in the West
The West has undergone an age of advanced communication. This means that the media and other platforms of communication are massively spread. This has ensured that a massive percentage of people in the West are massively connected within and without the world. The popular culture plays a massive role in the information and shaping of the minds, attitudes, behaviors, and mentalities of the population in the US and Europe (Paschyn). Said argues that the media has played a massive role in creating a caricature of the Orient that does not reflect fact and realities in the region. In this case, when the knowledge starts to seep into the policy makers, many of these representations are transformed into tangible policies of the West that get most of their expectations and diagnosis of the challenges or problems facing the region wrong. Consequently, with the wrong or erroneous diagnosis, the solutions do not work, or they might be counterproductive (Kent). For example, the invasion of Iraq was supposed to get rid of a dictator that was supporting terrorist groups in the region and seeking an expansionist ideology. However, more than a decade later, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq created a power vacuum that allowed the rise of the Islamic States or ISIS, which has become one of the most vicious and dangerous terrorist groups in the region and around the world. Therefore, the approach of the US in the Middle East rehashes colonialism and other exploitative escapades of the Christian West in the Muslim East.
In the West, the movies created for children to watch for enjoyment and pleasure rather than instruction purposes have been seen to have a massive imprint or influence in the thinking and attitudes of the children at a formative age. Therefore, these films are more ineffective at shaping the mind of the impressionable and fresh mind compared to “boring” or unexciting books. Therefore, the kids are attracted to such movies. In turn, these films establish inaccurate representations of the people form the Middle East (Kennedy). The orientalist views then become central dogma in the thinking and attitudes of the children, as they grow old, towards the people from the Orient. For example, since the 1992 release of the film Aladdin by Walt Disney Pictures, it has become one of the most successful franchises in the market. Based on popularity, the film has been ranked the fourth highest one among the Disney movies. This is an indication of the film’s consumption in the West and around the world as well (Miller). However, the implication of this film’s massive consumption among children in the West is that it unfairly and inaccurately represents the Arab World. As a result, the film has been widely used as an example of the remnant of Orientalism or “modern Orientalism” in the West. For example, the opening theme song of the Aladdin film paints a picture of the Arab world as a “faraway land filled with camel caravans, where they cut off your ear if they do not like your face and an outright barbaric place. This song is an illustration of the depiction of the Middle East as a place starkly different from the West, and therefore a mystery that elicits fear among the young children. It paints a picture of a barbaric, dangerous, and uncivilized place (Shabanirad and Marandi). This is a creation of a false reality of a real place, culture, and people. It “plants a seed” regarding the view and mentality regarding the Middle East, which shapes and understanding of these kids on issues such as terrorism and immigration.
With the advent of globalization, the chances of interacting with people of Middle Eastern decent has increased massively. Therefore, with the perpetuation of such inaccurate, erroneous, and negative assumptions about this community, it has allowed hatred or aspects such as Islamophobia to fester in the US and the West. Edward Said’s Orientalism argues that the “otherization” of the Middle East, its people, and its culture have become institutionalized over time in the West (Shabanirad and Marandi). As a result, Said argues that there has been a fusion of the knowledge and the power in the West, which has led to the implementation of policies that are oblivious to the “true” culture and nature of the people in the Orient. In this case, Said helps explain the recent upsurge of Islamophobia being witnessed across the West.
For example, the deterioration of the Syrian crisis led to large swathes of Syrian immigrants fleeing the civil war to seek refugee status in several countries in Europe. However, as the crisis deepened, European countries were massively unwilling to let in these refugees. With the exception of Germany, many of the other major democratic countries such as the UK and France were deeply opposed to letting these immigrants. They cited cases of terrorism attacks in the past as a reason to reject millions of refugees into their countries. These decisions were partly decided because of the massive unpopularity of the open borders policies that have been adopted in the past (Shabanirad and Marandi). The levels of Islamophobia or increasing anti-immigration in the UK and France have become crucial issues in the political discourses of these countries. In the UK, it was part of the massive decision to leave the European Unions in a stunning “Brexit” vote. In France, Islamophobia is indicated to be fueling the campaign of Marie Le Pen as she has made to the run-off presidential contest with Macron. Said argues that Orientalism is not a thing of the past; rather, it is continually influencing the powers and political decisions of many of the Western countries is demonstrated in this case.
The advent of the internet has also provided massive platform and voice to many fringe elements in the Western society that have sought to bring their anti-Islam and pro-Western exceptionalism ideas into the mainstream. In many cases, the anti-Islam ideals are expressed by the “far right” or the “alt right” elements in the society that have suddenly found a platform to express these ideas instantly to a wide audience in the West and around the world. The surge of Breitbart in the US has been, in part, because of their anti-Islamic agenda. They describe Islam as an anti-Christian religion that seeks to destroy Christianity around the world. As a result, it should be stopped, forcefully if it comes to that (Miller). In this case, the surge of the Islamophobia is a realization of Edward Said’s prediction that the popular media and culture in the West was creating a society filled with massive misinformation and utter misunderstanding of the Middle East. This means that the gap between the West and the East widens, making it challenging to resolve common problems such as terrorism and climate change.
In this case, Edward Said’s Orientalism work provides a massive evaluation of the dynamics in the Western culture and its structures as well as institutions that have contributed to the perpetuation of the Orientalist ideals. Said also correctly points out that Orientalism is massively pervasive issues that will continue to plague the psyche of the country. He also predicts that the Orientalist knowledge will fuse with the power of any of these countries and thus influence the decision-making.
Significance of Said’s Orientalism to the Scholarly Community
After over 30 years since its publication, Edward Said’s Orientalism is no longer included in the pantheon of cutting edge literary or scholarly works. However, the book’s trailblazing works on the issue of Orientalism remain massively crucial and relevant in the post-9/11 political, economic, and cultural order of the world. It serves as an essential foundation for the evaluation of the postcolonial themes and phenomena around the Middle East and the West as well. It allows the challenging of many concepts and orientalist thinking and ideas presented in the popular media and politics around the Western discourses (Thompson). It has helped many scholarly works to evaluate the core issues of the day such as the “clash of civilization” between the West and the East. It has also allowed the challenging of the mainstream ideas that seek to fight “the faceless forces of Islamist terror” that have led to the victimization and discrimination of Muslims as a community in the world. The orientalist mentality is not limited to the people living in the Middle East; it also targets the Muslims residing in the West as legal citizens. Therefore, Said’s work has enhanced the awareness of the bias in the popular media and the broad scholarly community (Shabanirad and Marandi). This is because advancing misinformed or uninformed ideas regarding an erroneously homogenized community risks descending into identity politics. In fact, in some countries in the West, such identity politics has already gripped the political and national discourse fabric. Said’s work has allowed the opening up of the core issues affecting the society. As a result, no restriction have been advanced such as only a Muslim can write about Islam or only a Jew can advance the core issues of Jews (King). This has allowed for a healthier evaluation for some of the main cultural, political, religious, and racial issues dividing the West and the East. It has allowed many Western scholarly individuals to try to understand the Orient.
Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated that Orientalism underscores the basic distinction between the West and the East as the foundation of many elaborate theories and schools of thought that describe the culture and the people in the Orient. Additionally, this paper illustrates that Orientalist approaches to form the basis for many Western epics, political accounts, novels, social descriptions of the people in Orient. The paper demonstrates that Said’s Orientalism work provides a relevant evaluation of the contemporary issues in the world such as terrorism, immigration, and the depiction of the Middle East in the popular media and culture in the West. According to Said also explains that the development of Orientalism can be dated back to the colonization of the Arab World and the European Enlightenment period. This provides the historical anchor of the contemporary orientalist views, practices, and policy formulation in many major nations in the West. Orientalism is crucial in establishing efforts to understand the Orient based on empirical experiences and study of the study and ways of life of the region instead of depending the anecdotes and depictions based on erroneous assumptions. Orientalism also forms the foundation of modern scholarly approaches and understanding of the West-East divided and relationship dynamics.
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Innovative Writers 