On Orientalism - Assignment Example

Introduction Part one Edward Said is among the most influential scholars in the nineteenth century. In his book “on Orientalism” which was written in 1978, is regarded as profound and significant. Orientalism revolution is basically the study of the Middle East and helps and creates new fields of study. He analyses the book by showing what Orientalism created such as the postcolonial theory. In addition, Said tries to unravel the question why do we have pre-conceived notions? Why Middle East is important, and the various ways in which we come to understand people who are different from us. Therefore the core value of the movie review is to explore these issues through interview. Orientalism has varied sections for instance, American Orientalism, Orientalism today, repertory Orientalism , Orientalism and the empire, Orientalism in action, Orientalism and the Palestinian question and the Oklahoma bombing. Part two: Sections of Orientalism The central argument of Orientalism is to prove why we acquire this knowledge is not based on any centre of objective but the end result that reflect certain end result. Said in his work starts off by telling us the existence of a lens, which the views of the Middle East by the West. Said calls the lens used as Orientalism while attending to the interview questions. The film is made more interesting by the manner in which Said responds to what triggered him in coming up with Orientalism. Through Orientalism, said asserts that the way the west look or views at the other countries is to restore the actual reality of those places and he calls this ‘Orientalism’. Thus Orientalism is used to understand the unfamiliar and the strange and why the Middle East people appear strange. Therefore he has aided in outlining the issue of stereotyping. He asserts that the Arab Israel war of 1973, the Israelis were naive and coward during the fight. In addition, the disparity that occurred between his experiences about the nature of the Arab and its representation were the two driving forces for his writing. In the repertoire of images in the Middle East has numerous sensual women, secretes and monsters which are not concerned with the real Orient. They were consistent and this extended further from the Arab world for more people to study. They are just mere narratives, extended in description due to expert’s views and are objective knowledge. The images produced indicated that Orients were similar and they were out of history and did not develop. The orients were similar despite the physical location. This is because it is a creation of the ideal other. Furthermore, the Orients were timeless, placid, eternal, and still. He asserts that this is contradicted by history that had led to creation of ideal in other continents like Europe. Said in the American Orientalism is based on abstractions and politicized by Israel’s presence, which is an ally of the America. In this section, he asserts that everything we watch and read is politically colored by the Israel-Arab conflict where America takes on. In the Orientalism of the Palestinian, Said asserts that the coverage of the media gave a negative impression, which was unchanged years before writing the book. He explicates this and says that a film where people discuss in Arab would automatically be viewed that they were planning on destruction of America. However, if you understood the language, the discussion did not concern America. Furthermore, in demonization of the Islam, terror is attached to Islamic. Part three: 1). The Question of the Palestinian The book allows us to feel an in depth historical perspectives in Palestine. Furthermore, it deals with the process of failing of Oslo and the mediation of the US, the second intifada that concerns the independence of Palestine. The book further deals with Gaza devastation, East Jerusalem and the West Bank after forty military years of action. The last concern for the Orient in the Palestinian is the take apart of the national power of Palestinian and the massacre of Jews and Palestinian. Said’s valuable contribution is essential in dealing with the question about Palestine. This is because he focuses on the Palestinian standpoint and the outlined history of the inhabitants from Palestine, which focus on the demography and sociological features. He attributes the issues to the core factors before understanding history and the enlightenment of the ideological continuity. Said insists that that philological rigor is vital before documenting and interpreting any writing. Palestine had numerous civil wars, which made England encourage the Zionist movement to topple Palestine because it had fertile grounds. The Zionist movement is just part of the political strategies in Palestine. This is associated to the major stereotypes about the Jews seizing backward. The radical views about Europe civilization and colonialism reconstruction, forced the Israel to rule the fact that cooperation with indigenous population was not on subordinate level. Therefore, the original sin about the Israel lies in the Zionist nature, which involves the refusal to mingle in peace with the Palestinians and the failure to strategize and manage its hegemony without resort to the colonial and racist practices. The Zionist ideologies is helped by the Holocaust and Anti-Semitic persecution which has pushed for the conquering of the Palestine. It provides the world with the original Jewish element with the Palestinians being the foreigners. Thus, Zionism is the colonial ruling and conquest from outside. This was a successful and was supported by European states same to other colonies in the world. Therefore, the Zionist culture is the greatest sin that Israel state committed. 2). The American Orientalism The American Orientalism discusses issues based on press conferences, and news coverage. This makes the movies more interesting to watch because it deals with barbarism. He recalls his experiences during the Oklahoma bombing in which all the media were concerned with the causal agent of the bombing in the Middle East but discovers that it originated from Christian fundamentals. Thus, despite Saudi Arabia and Indonesia being Islamic, they are very different due to cliché’s on Orientalist discourse. Orientalism of the other is purposely derogatory and racist with power to administrate and rule others as the major purpose. This is proved in the case of India, which aids to understand the current Orientalism and its progress. American Orientalism is useful because of the convenient organization to address the issues on diplomatic history. After the introduction of history of the attitudes of the Orientalists in the American culture that were working, back from the insights of Mark Twain in ‘The innocents abroad’. Through this, they could cite to popular magazines, specific films and the administrative analysis of the policies of the Middle East. The various policies include democratization, oil acquisition, Arab-Israel negotiations, regime change, counterterrorism, and the cold war détente. Therefore, each of the chapters overlaps chronologically but it explores in depth different aspects of the Middle East history about relations with other countries that are not Muslim. Thus, the desired effect that arises from this arrangement is not meant to achieve reinforcement about the details but rather to assert vexing interconnectedness of the various factors that shape US. Foreign policies despite publicity it is acknowledged as primary motivation. This convergence is very critical to the understanding of the government perennial missteps during the administration of the Middle East, which is similar to our culture’s imaginations about the simplified Orientals. The Orientals were defined as backward, untrustworthy, monolithic and the oversimplified actions in Middle East by our leaders. However, people have allowed this because of laziness and ignorance. However, very little was recorded before the Iraq fiasco war which was clear on the pains, bullish miscalculations, the themes that deals with arrogance, persistent underestimation and the well documented materials fit for every member who cared. In this regard, the policy in the Middle East has been inconsistent and incoherent since the Second World War. This has overshadowed numerous international priorities due to the expensive nature of the treasured lives. Americans involvement in Israel-Arab conflict, the foreign minister of Israel asserted that the Palestinians did not miss any opportunity to miss a vital opportunity. This becomes the behavior of ‘the other’ parties in the region. Part four: Criticisms about Orientalism Therefore, when we edit the film, we can assert that the time factor and music that defines the film fails to accept critiques concerning Orientalism. This is just an introductory film that helps students to have a rough feel about Orientalism. The film fails to state why the many people decided to stop reading Said works on Orientalism. Therefore, his works is termed uninteresting and repetitive because of the reality he presents in his work. In addition, Said’s thesis statement relies mostly on readings from Foucault ‘on the power versus knowledge’ thesis. Furthermore, Gramsci has asserted that the described history as power quest has left the history not explained. The understanding of the Foucault compared to Davidson Arnold’s views on the thesis statement could actually lead us towards achieving interesting conclusions, but this is not explored in the film. Said’s thesis has resulted to a more conspiracy theory that is in line with the postcolonial ideas like hybridity proposed by Hommi Bhabha. Spivak proposed that all the theories are just countering about the anti-Orientalist agendas because the future of the area of study is just bleak. Said’s position on anti-theory and the subaltern views is wavered. Thus, epistemology has not benefitted from the Orientalism theory as compared to politics. Therefore, the Orientalism thesis about the ‘other’ has a racist and a derogatory approach. Simply the purpose for this center is to focus on power to rule and administer others. In history, such statements have been common among the accounts of the western travelers since the 15th century. Thus the travelers had no intention to conquer or rule but explore the world. This has been proved in the case of India and the evolving of criteria and understands the modern Orientalism. Work Cited Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Publishers, 1979. Print. Read More