Orientalism

[bedlamsbard]

I'm reading the introduction of Edward Said's book Orientalism for class, and I don't know what else he says in his book, but oh my god I love his prose this much so far. Plus he hits some of my Narnia kinks, always a plus.

I have begun with the assumption that the Orient is not an inert fact of nature. It is not merely there, just as the Occident itself is not just there either. We must take seriously Vico's great observation that men make their own history, that what they can know is what they have made, and extend it to geography: as both geographical and cultural entities -- to say nothing of historical entities -- such locales, regions, geographical sectors as "Orient" and "Occident" are man-made. Therefore as much as the West itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other.

*starry eyes* It's just so pretty -- okay, some of what he says later is a little problematical, of course it is, he's talking about Orientalism, everything is problematical, but it's problematical in an interesting sort of way.

A second qualification is that ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force, or more precisely their configurations of power, also being studied. ...The Orient was Orientalized not only because it was discovered to be "Oriental" in all those ways considered commonplace by an average nineteenth-century European, but also because it could be -- that is, submitted to being -- made Oriental. There is very little consent to be found, for example, in the fact that Flaubert's encounter with an Egyptian courtesan produced a widely influential model of the Oriental woman; she never spoke of herself, she never represented her emotions, presence, or history. He spoke for and represented her. He was foreign, comparatively wealthy, male, and these were historical facts of domination that allowed him not only to possess Kuchuk Hanem physically but to speak for her and tell his readers in what way she was "typically Oriental."

...Orientalism depends for its strategy on this flexible positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the relative upper hand. ...The scientist, the scholar, the missionary, the trader, or the soldier was in, or thought about, the Orient because he could be there, or could think about it, with very little resistance on the Orient's part.

*pause* Okay, that latter part doesn't hit my Narnia kinks, but it mostly makes me think about rape and sexual assault, which is...interesting. And problematic. And interesting. And, I think, gives me something to write my response paper for class on.