20th Century Literary Theory:Orientalism as a tool of colonial discourse - Essay Example

20th Century Literary Theory: Orientalism as a tool of colonial dis In the history of twentieth century literary theory, colonial dis has an important role and orientalism has been considered as the best tool in analysing literary pieces on this topic. Orientalism can be comprehended as the reproduction or depiction of various vital elements of the Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists and it was Edward Said, in his celebrated book Orientalism, who gave a critical introduction to the theoretical interpretations of the concept. Significantly, Orientalism in literary theory may be understood as Said's evaluation and critique of the set of beliefs and it has become one of the most important backgrounds for postcolonial studies and discourses. Said, in his work, brings out the inaccuracies of the assumptions as it questions various paradigms of thought which have been accepted on individual, academic, and political levels. It is important to understand the Orient as signifying a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. "The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien ('Other') to the West. Orientalism is 'a manner of regularized (or Orientalised) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient.' It is the image of the 'Orient' expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship." (Sered) Therefore, Edward Said made remarkable contribution to the understanding of the image of the 'Orient' expressed in the Western writing, vision, and study which, in turn, helps the progress of literary theory concerning colonial discourse. In short, the relevance of orientalism in the twentieth century literary criticism as a tool of colonial discourse cannot be questioned and Edward Said is the chief proponent of this method of analysing the true image of the 'Orient' in the Western literary theory. In order to realize orientalism as a tool of colonial discourse in the twentieth century literary criticism it is essential to comprehend the concept of orientalism as proposed by Edward Said. The concept of orientalism was in air much before him and it was a term more widely used in the 19th century art history. It was closely associated with the works of French artists who in this period mostly produced works that depended on the Orientalist ideas and concepts for their subject matter, colour and style. However, in his controversial work Orientalism, the 20th century scholar Said provided a new twist in the earlier meanings of the term orientalism and, for him, the term described the Western tradition of understanding the East which served merely the purposes of them. In other words, the term referred to academic and artistic traditions of the West which held intimidating and deprecatory views of the East. It suggests a prejudiced understanding of the East by the Western scholars and intellectuals and here the outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples were prevalent. Unlike the other scholars, Said was disapproved this tradition of the West. According to him, the French and British, unlike the Americans, shared a long tradition of understanding the Eastern cultures and peoples with an 'outsider' perspective and he terms it Orientalism which is a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European Western Experience. He clarifies the meaning of the term in his book and he specifies that "by Orientalism I mean several things, all of them, in my opinion, interdependent. The most readily accepted designation for Orientalism is an academic one, and indeed the label still serves in a number of academic institutions. Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient--and this applies whether the person is an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist--either in its specific or its general aspects, is an Orientalist, and what he or she says or does is Orientalism." (Said) Therefore, Said provided an important explanation of the concept of orientalism which has become a crucial tool in colonial discourse. Edward Said has been one of the most preeminent scholars and an important figure in postcolonial studies and his exploration of the Western tradition of understanding the Eastern cultures and peoples made him a chief proponent of colonial discourse in twentieth century discourse. He possessed stimulating ideas about the Western notion of the East and he promulgated his concepts for the progress of colonial discourse in literary theory of the twentieth century. His significant work has been essential in an unbiased understanding of the Eastern tradition and he questions the fundamental assumptions of the Western scholars concerning the foundation of Orientalist thinking. Said's contribution to the Orientalist studies has been greatly influential and his ideas formed the essential aspect of colonial discourse. "For Edward Said, in his highly influential book Orientalism of 1978, far from protecting oriental cultures from overwhelming imperial power, far from permitting eastern cultural forms to survive, Orientalist studies became themselves an expression of intellectual and technical dominance and a means to the extension of political, military, and economic supremacy. Orientalism came to represent a construct, not a reality, an emblem of domination and a weapon of power. It lost its status as a sympathetic concept, a product of scholarly admiration for diverse and exotic cultures, and became the literary means of creating a stereotypical and mythic East through which European rule could be more readily asserted." (MacKenzie, xii) Therefore, there was an important shift in the perception of the East by the Western scholars through the writing by Said and Orientalism has become one of the most essential tools in colonial discourse in the twentieth century. In a reflective analysis of the concept of Orientalism, it becomes lucid that a major portion of the responses to Orientalism has centred on the ways in which it can be extended into the understanding of the range and power of imperial representation and, therefore, it has turned out to be an effective tool of colonial discourse. Significantly, the work by Said can be understood as one of the pioneering efforts to extend to the colonial discourse analysis. Several critics dealing with the colonial discourse in literary theory have offered illumining acknowledgements of the significance of Said's contributions to the colonial discourses. "A great number of responses to Orientalism, by Third World critics and like-minded theorists, have focused on the ways in which it might be extended into an understanding of the range and power of imperial representation. Homi Bhabha's discussion of how Said's pioneering work could be extended in colonial discourse analysis also focuses also on the question of Foucault Bhabha's purpose is not to expose Said's theoretical problems but to suggest a way of extending Said's analysis, which he sees as central to colonial discourse analysis." (Ahluwalia et al, 79) Therefore, there have been stimulating evidences to prove the significant role of Orientalism as an efficient tool in colonial discourses and Said is the proponent of this theoretical perspective. In a close understanding of Said's project with the theoretical tools of discourse analysis, it becomes obvious that Orientalism has become a great tool of colonial power and administration. " Said is an important figure in colonial discourse analysis because his work 'focused the need to quicken the half-light of western history with the disturbing memory of its colonial texts that bear witness to the trauma that accompanies the triumphal art of Empire'" (Ahluwalia et al, 79-80) In short, Orientalism has become an important tool in the colonial discourse of the twentieth century literary theory. Orientalism has given one of the most stimulating tools of colonial discourse in the literary theory of the last century and there are several literary examples that support the relevant role of orientalism in colonial discourse. According to Said, what distinguishes the modern European empires from the early Roman and Arab empires is that they are systematic enterprises, constantly reinvested. The imperialist tendencies of the West are reflected in several of the literary works of the last century and the colonialists considered themselves as essential part of the colonies. This dominating tendency of the European imperialism has been evident in the literary pieces of the last century. "Joseph Conrad is fascinating in this respect, for although he was an anti-imperialist, his belief that imperialism was inevitable made him complicit with its totalising assumptions. Conrad's Africans came out of a tradition of Africanism (that is a way of 'knowing' Africa that is very similar in its processes to Orientalism) rather than any 'real' experience, and it is the almost sinister primitiveness of these Africans (even though, or perhaps because, it is at the same time the primitiveness of humanity itself) that justifies the mission of imperialism." (Ahluwalia et al, 83) According to Conrad, what redeems the imperial process is the idea only, and an idea at the back of it. In essence, there are stimulating evidences of imperialist design in the works by Conrad and other literary figures of the last century and the concept of orientalism turns out to be an essential and effective tool of colonialist discourse in literary theory. It is essential to comprehend Orientalism as an essential element in the understanding of colonial discourse in literature and Said's views are centre to this idea. According to Said, the West has created a dichotomy between the reality of the East and the romantic notion of the Orient and the West viewed the Middle East and Asia with prejudice and racism. To the Western scholars, the people of the Orient are backward and unaware of their own history and culture. It was the prime duty of the West to create a culture, history, and future promise for them in order to fill this emptiness in the oriental tradition. This understanding of the Orient by the West makes framework of their study and it rests in the political imperialism of Europe in the East. According to Said, "the whole of Western European and American scholarship, literature, and cultural representation and stereotype creates and reinforces prejudice against non-Western cultures, putting them in the classification of Oriental (or 'Others'). The heart of the matter in understanding Orientalism is this power relationship and how the Occident has used and continues to use and understand the Orient on its own terms." (Dexheimer) Whereas 'Oriental Studies' was an important area of academic study in the nineteenth century, the West needed to create the East in order for this study to take place. In Said's view, the Occidentals regarded the Orientals as people with no history or culture independent of their colonial masters and the understanding of the East by the West was prejudiced. "Orientalism is more an indicator of the power the West holds over the Orient, than about the Orient itself. Creating an image of the Orient and a body of knowledge about the Orient and subjecting it to systematic study became the prototype for taking control of the Orient. By taking control of the scholarship, the West also took political and economic control." (Dexheimer) According to Said, Orientalism has been prevalent in the Western perceptions of the East for a long time and there are several examples of the all through the history of the West. Significantly, the 19th century scholars who translated the writings of 'the Orient' into English can be regarded as the first 'Orientalists' and they were particular that a truly effective colonial conquest required knowledge of the conquered peoples. The knowledge of the East made the West powerful, based in the idea of knowledge as power, and Said's critique emphasised this factor. Whereas the West was active, the Orient remained passive - the studied, the seen, the observed, and the object. "One of the most significant constructions of Orientalist scholars is that of the Orient itself. What is considered the Orient is a vast region, one that spreads across a myriad of cultures and countries. It includes most of Asia as well as the Middle East. The depiction of this single 'Orient' which can be studied as a cohesive whole is one of the most powerful accomplishments of Orientalist scholars. It essentializes an image of a prototypical Oriental--a biological inferior that is culturally backward, peculiar, and unchanging--to be depicted in dominating and sexual terms." (Sered) Significantly, the discourse and visual imagery of Orientalism is closely connected with the notions of power and superiority. The visual imagery of Orientalism has been formulated originally to make a colonizing mission possible on the part of the West and this perspective of the East was disseminated through a wide variety of discourses and policies. One of the major and critical elements to the construction of such an imagery of the Orientalism was language. "A rejection of Orientalism entails a rejection of biological generalizations, cultural constructions, and racial and religious prejudices. It is a rejection of greed as a primary motivating factor in intellectual pursuit. It is an erasure of the line between 'the West' and 'the Other.' Said argues for the use of 'narrative' rather than 'vision' in interpreting the geographical landscape known as the Orient, meaning that a historian and a scholar would turn not to a panoramic view of half of the globe, but rather to a focused and complex type of history that allows space for the dynamic variety of human experience." (Sered) Therefore, the idea of Orientalism, as proposed by Said, has an important role in the understanding of the colonialist nature of the West and it has become an effective tool of colonial discourse in the twentieth century literary theory. The importance of Orientalism, the celebrated work by Said in the understanding of the idea of Orientalism as well as the colonial nature of the West represented in literary creations cannot be questioned. "Orientalism, Said's groundbreaking study which explores the intellectual history of European (particularly British and French) representations of the Arab Middle East, is an early example of postcolonial criticism The nature of colonial discourse and the ways in which it was used to wield power and control over the colonized is central to Said's thesis in Orientalism. Said critiques Eurocentric universalism for its setting up a binary opposition of the superiority of western cultures and the inferiority of colonized, non-western cultures." (Auslande, 143) In conclusion, Orientalism is an important ideology in the Western which has become an essential tool in colonial discourse of the twentieth century literary theory and Edward Said has been the most significant theorist of Orientalism. "Said's premise in Orientalism is that the West has a long history of purposefully misunderstanding the Middle East. The Western imagination of the Middle East bears little resemblance to the reality, and this inaccuracy is used to justify our political and economic course. If we are to truly assist in achieving a resolution to the current crisis, we must examine not only the 'Orientals' but also ourselves." (Dexheimer) There have been stimulating literary examples to support the view that Orientalism is an essential tool of colonial discourse. In a reflective analysis of the literary examples of the last century as well as the concept of Orientalism, it is essential to conclude that Orientalism has become one of the most essential tools in colonial discourse of the twentieth century literary theory. Trauma theory and the nature of pain and trauma Trauma is an object of study which has been the topic of three traditional branches of the university such as the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, along with the streams such as medicine and law. It has a privileged and paradoxical relationship to the interdisciplinary studies and cutting-edge trauma research has been pursued in several streams such as psychology, psychiatry, sociology, public health, history, and literature. However, the phenomenon of trauma cannot be explained by any of these disciplines on its own and the notion of trauma raise great challenge for definition. The word "trauma" originates from the ancient Greek and it means "wound." "Although the precise definition of the modern concept of trauma varies according to context and discipline, there is a general consensus that if trauma is a wound, it is a very peculiar kind of wound. There is no specific set of physical manifestations identifying trauma, and it almost invariably produces repeated, uncontrollable, and incalculable effects that endure long after its ostensible "precipitating cause." Trauma, therefore, presents a unique set of challenges to understanding." (Marder) It is also essential to comprehend that trauma has an inherently political, historical, and ethical dimension as the traumatic events regularly occur by reason of social forces as well as in the social world. Significantly, the contemporary literary trauma theory emphasises that trauma creates a speechless fright which results in the destruction of identity and, therefore, trauma theory has become an essential theory in the twentieth century literary theory. Trauma has been regarded as a valuable model of history as it seemed to promise supreme contact with the past in all its original immediacy and fullness and Freud has been an important theorist who was aware of the neurotic repetition of traumatic events. Thus, Freud is an important theorist associated with the development of the trauma theory who assumed that the unfolding of traumatic memory has significant resemblance to the unfolding of the event itself. The other major theorists in the development of the trauma theory are Paul de Man, Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, and Geoffrey Hartman. "Cathy Caruth formulates the structure of trauma as a disruption of history or temporality For Cathy Caruth, trauma is not a symptom of the unconscious but of history. The experience of trauma has not yet been assimilated by the individual and so cannot be possessed in the form of memory or narrative. On the contrary, trauma assumes a haunting quality, continuing to possess the subject with its insistent repetitions and returns." (Whitehead, 12) The dominant psychology model of trauma has been one of the most important elements of the literacy criticism of the twentieth century, although there are significant debates on the role of trauma as a viable category in literary theory. Trauma theory in relation to the nature of pain and trauma has been an essential topic of research in literary theory of the last century. According to Cathy Caruth, trauma can be defined as "the response to an unexpected or overwhelming violent event or events that are not fully grasped as they occur, but return later in repeated flashbacks, nightmares, or other repetitive phenomena." (Caruth, 91) One of the central arguments of the contemporary literary trauma theory has been that trauma creates a speechless fright that divides or destroys identity. Based on this argument, it has been claimed in literary theory that identity is formed by the intergenerational transmission of trauma. However, it is essential to comprehend that "a discursive dependence upon a single psychological theory of trauma produces a homogenous interpretation of the diverse representations in the trauma novel and the interplay that occurs between language, experience, memory, and place. Considering the multiple models of trauma and memory presented in the trauma novel draws attention to the role of place, which functions to portray trauma's effects through metaphoric and material means." (Balaev) Thus, descriptions of the geographic place of traumatic experience and remembrance have a vital influence on putting the individual proportionate to a larger cultural context that includes the social values which in turn affect the recollection of the event and the reconfiguration of the self. Trauma theory has an important utility in comprehending the facts concerning identity in relation to the cultural and social background. Thus, a trauma novel reveals how a traumatic event disturbs attachments between self and others by challenging basic assumptions concerning moral laws and social relationships which are connected to particular environments. "Novels represent this disruption between the self and others by carefully describing the place of trauma because the physical environment offers the opportunity to examine both the personal and cultural histories imbedded in landscapes that define the character's identity and the meaning of the traumatic experience. The primary of place in the representations of trauma anchors the individual experience within a larger cultural context, and, in fact, organizes the memory and meaning of trauma." (Balaev) Trauma accounts in literature provide with a rather peculiar economy of truth to the readers and literary examples of trauma prove this factor. There have been significant examples of the painful and traumatic experiences in literature which substantiate the arguments of the traumatic theory and Ernest Hemingway is an important writer to have dealt with such experiences in literary creations. Thus, in a close analysis of Hemingway's fiction it becomes obvious that he often made use of his own painful and traumatic experiences in his works. There are vital examples of traumatic experiences in the writings of Hemingway which prove that trauma accounts offer a rather peculiar economy of truth. "For Hemingway, writing and trauma were inextricably linked; trauma provided material for his writing and writing provided a therapeutic outlet for trauma. Trauma accounts in literature present the reader with a rather peculiar economy of truth; Hemingway's posthumously published writing reveals aspects of his psyche that he was unable or unwilling to share publicly Hemingway's repeated writing about the loss of his Paris manuscripts might have served as a sort of creative flashback, allowing him to face and deal with the trauma of the loss." (Seals, 62) Thus, the traumatic experience of Hemingway, his first wife Hadley's loss of his early Paris manuscripts in 1922, can be found in his works such as A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, The Garden of Eden, and True at First Light etc and they reveal significant realities to the reader. In conclusion, trauma theory in literature has an essential impact on the interpretation of literary pieces and it occupies a central position in the literary theory of the twentieth century. Works Cited Ahluwalia, Pal et al. Edward Said. Taylor & Francis. 2008. P 79. Auslander, Philip. Theory for performance studies: a student's guide. New York: Routledge. 2007. P 143. Balaev, Michelle. Trends in literary trauma theory. Mosaic (Winnipeg). 2008. 16 June, 2009. . Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. P 91. Dexheimer, Jim. "The history of Orientalism." Orientalism. 14 Jun, 09. . MacKenzie, John M. Orientalism: history, theory, and the arts. London: Manchester University Press. 1995. P xii. Marder, Elissa. Trauma and Literary Studies: Some "Enabling Questions". 16 June, 2009. . Said. Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage. 1979. Orientalism: a Brief Definition. 14 Jun, 09. . Seals, Marc. "Trauma Theory and Hemingway's Lost Paris Manuscripts." The Hemingway Review. Vol. 24. Iss. 2. 2005. P 62. Sered, Danielle. "Orientalism." 1996. 14 Jun, 2009. . Whitehead, Anne. Trauma fiction. Edinburgh University Press. 2004. P 12. Read More