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1-Page Summary of Orientalism

Overall Summary

Edward Said’s book Orientalism explores the relationship between East and West, specifically how Western dominance in academia has shaped public policy about Asia and the Middle East. It also examines how the Orient is viewed as a place of mystery and danger that needs to be tamed by Occidentals.

In the book, Said talks about Orientalism and how it’s a historical practice of consolidating knowledge about the Orient into forms that can be studied and conveyed to a Western audience. However, as there is cultural diversity in the Orient, political nuance, and geographical expanse involved with this topic, he constantly returns to these ideas by studying them through his scholarship and political intervention. The more complicated the Orient becomes for him while doing this research work on it, the more motivated he is to study it even further.

In the second chapter, Said continued his discussion of Orientalism by analyzing several cultural texts. He shows how philology and anthropology have encouraged Western writers to study Islam as a science of observation and description of objective reality. This has led people to believe that there is a known Islam available for general Western imagination. These ideas about Islam populated various cultural works in the West with Arab and Islamic stereotypes that portrayed Arabs as different, fearsome, sinful, or inferior to Europeans.

Over the past two centuries, there has been a formalized discipline of Orientalism. While various European countries had different cultural and political investments in the Orient, they shared similar values when studying it. The study of the Orient was necessary to stabilize Western society after what appeared to be complicated interactions with Eastern cultures.

The author offers a detailed analysis of Orientalism in the present day. He argues that with the rise of U.S. political influence, the image and symbol of Islam pervades American popular culture. Furthermore, while Orientalism had operated previously as part of a conservative agenda, it is now propelled by Western liberals to involve themselves in every aspect of non-Western countries. Said wonders how this project may serve to challenge these forces and change them for good.

Introduction

Edward Said’s book Orientalism is about the power of Western countries (the Occident) over non-Western countries (the Orient). He says that while Americans and Europeans have different ideas about what constitutes the Orient, he is interested in looking at the influence of both U.S. and European intellectual and political investment in Asia/the Middle East. While there are differences between these two groups, they share a lot of common ground when it comes to their views on Asia/the Middle East; therefore, one has to look at how Westerners think about Asia/the Middle East as well as how they behave towards it historically to get a more complete picture of Orientalism.

Secondly, Said argues that the West’s domination of the East creates a relationship of power. This power arises not only through Westerners’ control over Eastern ideas but also through colonial administration and policy. He gives an example from Tancred, by Disraeli, where the author suggests that being in the East is like having a career for Westerners while those who live in Asia have no choice but to follow orders.

Orientalism is a comparative textual analysis of the “style, figures of speech, setting, narrative devices” in works by Western scholars and writers. Said hopes to show that intellectual work can be political as well. He also wants to erode the binary between East and West entirely so people will understand global cultures better.