Intro for English 599: A Comparative Study of Orientalism and Occidentalism

It’s good to be back. However, I will skip the formal introductions (I feel no need to repeat my first post, if you want to know about me or my work check it out).


The purpose for this new introduction will be the starting point for the blog posts that follow for the next few weeks. Needless to say, I started this blog for a class on Post-colonial theory/literature, and will continue it—although for the time being for a slightly different purpose, a purpose that will offset the rest of my work as a graduate student. Hopefully it will give me more insight into Orientalism and the thoughts, theories, and ideas that that followed this major piece of post-colonial work.

During my Post-colonial Theory/Literature class, I had the privilege to read an excerpt from Edward Said's Orientalism, specifically the Introduction. His theory had a major impact on me, and I found myself questioning and wanting to learn more. And that's how I came up with the idea to do an independent study, under the helpful guidance of Dr. Clemens. Therefore I would like to begin my attempt to deconstruct the binary of West/East and Orientalism/Occidentalism.

For this first post I will revisit the Introduction for Orientalism for my post next week I will apply portions of Said's theoretical insights to E.M. Forster's A Passage to India.

I’d like to start the deconstruction process with a story:
I was at work one day over Winter break, and a customer asked what I was studying in graduate college. Like the dutiful graduate student I am, I told her politely that I was studying Post-colonial literature and theory—in essence I revealed that I loved reading and learning the differences that define the many cultures of our world.  I then proceeded to tell her that I love to read Arab, African, and Indian literature because I find it so enriching and powerful.  The person then said to me “I sure hope you don’t become a terrorist reading that filth. I might just have to hurt you then.” I was shocked with this response and awkwardly laughed.  I laughed because I was horrified, but then I was horrified that I had no response to such a remark.  

Why didn’t I say something in return?  How does someone respond to such a statement? WHY was this statement was even made in the first place? What does this say about our own culture, and other cultures? What happens when people refuse to respond to such ignorance?

This simple comment was such a powerful one, but I knew it was made out of ignorance. However, it reassured me that my studies have a purpose, and that it is important to understand both sides of the binary in order to establish a place where both sides can finally understand each other. Ultimately I realized that the purpose of my studies is to rectify the damages that arise from these types of comments and statements. 

After all it gave me a place to begin because this anti-Eastern sentiment is a product of modern American orientalism. But this type of thought had to come from somewhere right?

I’d like to give a quick disclaimer before I begin my work, or more like a warning and understanding for myself.

Therefore let’s start at the beginning, but only one beginning because I believe Orientalism has many—Said’s theoretical work of Orientalism.

What is Orientalism?  Edward Said sees:

Orientalism, [as] a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western Experiences. The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other. In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe (the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience. Yet none of this orient is merely imaginative. The Orient is an integral part of European material civilization and culture. (1)

There are a few concepts that Said establishes within this passage.  Europe is established as the factor of control over the way the Orient is understood.  However, the control is derived from an initial fear of superiority and domination.  The Orient, according to Said, is special because it is seen as the place in which all humanity first has its existence. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Europeans stake a major claim on its existence, not out of superiority but out of inferiority.  A binary is established through this fear.  However, the relationship is one in which the other constantly reaffirms itself through the other’s existence—thus Said calls the Orient Europe’s “cultural contestant.” 

The Orient is a geographical space, and Said sets this binary up as East (Orient) and West(Europe).  However, orientalism transcends geographical space and is present with European society itself because Said states that it is deeply invested in Europe’s material civilization and culture.  This means that Europe depended on the concept of Orientalism as a means of financial stability, and did so under the premise of materialism and material production.

This is a somewhat challenging and broad definition. Yet, Said provides more insight into the way he establishes the Oriental discourse that defines his work.  There are several fundamental aspects to Orientalism all of which are “interdependent” (Said 2).  The first is that any person—be it scholar, artist, scientist, or historian—is a guilty of practicing Orientalistic thought and even though it is primarily a product of European colonialism it still exists today though it is an even broader category than it once was (Said 2).   The second aspect is that Orientalism “is style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident””(Said 2).   This means that the Occident—once again this refers to Europe—validates its own existence through defining that which is different from itself.  Difference is the key—I’ll return to the concept of the Other in a future post.  In doing so there are different levels of categorization with the Occident/West/European at the top.  The next aspect is that of “material production” (3). According to Said this is done by corporate reproduction of the Orient by a variety of ways most of which are “making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (3).  The final aspect of Orientalism is that it focuses on a specific and closely linked relationship between France/Britain and the Orient. 


What Said seems to repeat within his Introduction, is the locus of power and how it is determined through a specific anthropological discourse—one that is extremely unbalanced.  From these definitions it is easy to pinpoint who controls the way Orientalism is understood—it is no surprise that this is Europe.

I’d like to end this post on one more thing that Said states which is really interesting considering the principles he basis for the establishment of Orientalism.    This is the fact that the relationship between Britain, France, and the Orient “is enormously productive even if it always demonstrates the comparatively greater strength of the Occident” (Said 4).

Even though control and domination are the main premise of Oriental thought, it is a binary of production—one that functions for both sides of Orient/Occident.  I noticed that throughout this post I have navigated between different terms when describing the binary. Therefore I want to end this post by matching these terms to each other because I think they reveal something about the binary of power:


Orient=East=?

Occident=West=Europe=Britain and France

Through these analogies is it clear that the Orient is a much more vague term than the Occident because we can see that Said is very specific in his categorization of the West.   Orientalism, in accordance with Said’s work is one sided and it seems that he neglects to define the Orient on a more specific level.

How do we define the Orient other then the way it is defined by the occident? What countries fall into the category of Orient? Is it ok to group countries and people under one term?


These are all questions I hope to answer as I continue this course.