Edward Said, an American Palistinian
cultural theorist has written upon a diverse range of
Western literature and culture. Said’s seminal work "Orientalism" defined the occidental, the role of the other. By looking at the history of the term "Orientalism" as defined by western philosophers, Said argues that the
West continue to define Arab
cultures as a kind of exoticized other. Said goes on to discuss how such treatment of the Arab
world by Western scholars is deeply imbedded in power structures and continues to degrade the Arab world, but also reduces Arab
culture to a kind of lesser culture in the
discourse of power. As Said states, "To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write with the authority of nation, and not with the affirmation of a strident ideology but with the unquestioning certainty of absolute truth." The book remains influential for postcolonial and cultural theorists. By rejecting the former discourse towards Orientalism, and becoming less authoritative towards other cultures, a writer of cultural theory can avoid the pitfalls of prejudice and begin to reach beyond the East/West binary. In his work, Said defines the term Orientalism as anyone who teaches, writes on, or research on the Orient and is then an orientalist, or Orientalism as anyone who fetishizes or mythifies what they call, The Orient. By describing the origins of this mythification of the East from Western writers, colonisers and artists from the 18th Century to the present, Said maps out the deep rooted sources of prejudice and generalization that turn people and cultures into ‘the other.’ In total, Orientalism is formed through the distinction and difference constructed between the East and the West. As we see, the development of discourse around the Orient has caused a real political divide between these sides, thus turning an idea into a reality.
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