The Repertory of Orientalism - Admission/Application Essay Example

The Repertory of Orientalism According to the speaker, Said’s main argument is that, the people in western countries have such opinions about people from the Middle East which are wholly unjustified and many a times far from reality. He says there were two reasons for his interest in orientalism, one of which was developed by the media and news reports on the Arab war of 1973. The second main reason the picture which was portrayed of Arab’s in general was quite different from what he knew of the Arab civilization and their style of living. Also he felt that people of various civilizations were being moulded into their ancestor’s lives, simply because their development was being curtailed in the literary and imaginary field to fit into a pre set mould. 1. Orientalism and Empire Another problem according to Said is that, the westerners viewed all the Orientals to be the same. This lead to the creation of an ideal, imaginary world which was far from the actual and progressive civilization. Said also discusses how a marked shift was felt due to Napoleon’s conquest of the Egypt in 1978, which was not a routine loot, but which aimed instead at having the kind of power which allowed the French experts to deliver a verdict and to draw presumptions as well as observations about the Egyptians. 2. Orientalism Today: Said wrote three books, the third of which was to complete his trilogy and was based on the image of Islam as projected by popular media. This book was called “Covering Islam”. Edward Said, had come about with a revised version of this book, some sixteen to eighteen years after its publication and had expected a favourable response. However, to his shock, till that time, the image of Islam had changed by such leaps and bounds that the book was not accepted to a better extent. Where he expected the media to open up the hidden Islamic, the true Islamic culture in front of the world, it had in fact created a very negative picture. 3. American Orientalism: The way the French and the British view Indian culture and people is very different from the way the Americans view Indians. This disparity, according to Said, is because of the fact that while Americans and French had direct connections with Indians, in terms of having ruled over India (in having India as a colony at one point of time or another), the Americans are only indirectly related to India. According to Said, America is motivated by its political allies as far as its view on Orientals is concerned. America has forgotten to look at the bigger picture and has dwelled only on one particular aspect of the Islamic culture which is terrorism. There still remain a lot of aspects of Islamic culture which are there to notice but are often over looked killing the concept of humanity as is prevalent in Middle East. 4. Orientalism and the Oklahoma bombings His argument dwells on the point that there was a difference in the way the Americans treated the Oklahoma bombings in April 1995 with bias and no Christian organisation was held responsible for it even despite the fact that none of the Islamic people were held responsible for it and what was broadcasted on the news was all speculation regarding culprits. Edward blames this on the lack of investigative reporting and on growing political as well as personal interests in order to focus the inequities in one’s own society. Edward says that there is handy set of clichés about Islamic culture and lots of voids need to be filled in this regard. 5. Orientalism and the Palestinian question According to Edward who is also a Palestinian, history needs to be given interpretation and shape and sense in order to understand and to move beyond generalisation of various people. Palestinians like him have the idea of protection of self against others as well as few dream of co existence. The prior of these two ideas is a very dangerous concept. CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF TWO SECTIONS: 1. The repertory of orientalism The first section introduces the viewer to who is Edward Said and his significance in terms of orientalism. In a preliminary fashion, the speaker says that orientalism as a basic concept is that branch which helps us answer question as to why we form pre conceived notions in regard to a race or group of people and the study of the facts which help us formulate such ideas is orientalism. In Said’s words orientalism is a means of answering our queries as to why we look at a certain group of people/ a certain race of people the way we do. According to the speaker, Said’s main argument is that, the people in western countries have such opinions about people from the Middle East which are wholly unjustified. He says his interest was developed by the media and news reports on the Arab war of 1973. The second main reason because of which Edward Said’s interest in the field was fuelled was due to the fact that he himself was an Arab. Overall, the picture which was portrayed of Arab’s in general was quite different from what he knew of the Arab civilization and they were shown to be somewhat docile and cowardly. He had grown up in a different environment from that which had been depicted via paintings and novels. Said uses good illustrations and examples in terms of paintings, novels, and society to validate his points on the argument that he develops. His arguments are based on reasoning which is presented in a systematic manner, taking care not to merge illustrations. This takes the viewer and listener on a step by step, gradual journey of his theory and concepts. It develops a classroom style of teaching rather than an interview. 2. Orientalism Today: Via the talk about the third of his books from his trilogy, Said explains how he observed the change in thinking patterns of the world. He effectively explains how, the regular intake of negative images about and from Islam was curtailing the event of a change in the reputation of Islamic culture. People were depicted as mysterious, destructive and threatening race of individuals, whose main purpose in life was to intimidate and kill the Americans. The image of Islam had changed by such leaps and bounds that the book was not accepted to a better extent. Where he expected the media to open up the hidden Islamic, the true Islamic culture in front of the world, it had in fact created a very negative picture. He has in his interview chosen the most vivid example as the report called, “Jihad in America”. Being a very intelligent man he has directly challenged the opposition by teaming this report against the next biggest news which was from the same category but involved the people who may oppose his views. This was the way in which the Americans treated the Oklahoma bombings in April 1995 with bias and how no Christian organisation had been held responsible for it. Directly pin pointing the culprit as the lack of investigative reporting and on growing political as well as personal interests in order to focus the inequities in one’s own society he has done a tremendous job of identifying and locating the problem. Other than this, in his view, movies also insolently focus on two core areas, the idea of Islamic people as fanatics and the presence of huge number of bodies wherever some action sequence takes place in American movies. Once Edward managed to get the viewer on his side, he starts to draw on the other lacunas which affect thinking patterns. This in my view is a very effective way of presenting ones views and fundamental understanding. CRITICALLY EXAMINE THE STRENGTH OR THE WEAKNESSES OF THE ABOVE VIDEO AND DO YOU RECOMMEND IT FOR OTHER VIEWERS: The video which has been thus presented is a very strong tool in the hands of all Islamic people around the world. It is a means of putting across one’s opinion of how varied Islamic culture is, as compared to what it is portrayed to have become. In this video, one of the best features is that there are examples given at every step of what Edward Said wanted to communicate. Such examples draw a natural corollary to his arguments and provide support mechanism which influences the mind of the viewer. Other than this, the fact that the video advances step by step from making the viewer understand orientalism to how it is affecting modern day world, makes it easy for the viewer to understand better the basic concepts of what Edward is trying to convey. There may be times whereby some people are unable to understand the crux or the summary of Edward Said’s arguments, which the speaker clarifies at every step in the simplest of ways. Also, the video is one of its kind explanation of how the varied mindsets of both the Arabs and the britishers and Americans determine the fate of how we perceive each other. It does not lay parameters and boundaries as to conclusions, rather via the video the message on how things evolved to come to the present day scenario are explained, which helps the viewer connect more easily with whatever is being put across. Overall, this is the kind of video people should watch not in order to get convinced about certain notions, but in order to get an alternative view point which has been expressed in the simplest of manners. Difference between Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and Said’s Orientalism: According to Said, Huntington’s clash of civilization as a book is majorly lacking in concept as well as information. He says that the original essay which appeared in 1995 as, “the clash of civilizations?” was a better way of putting across Huntington’s view points. Edward believes that Huntington’s viewpoints about the world as divided into eastern and western cultures is derived mainly from the cold war thesis which says that west is the locus towards which all civilizations turn. On a reading of his book, Edward feels that the same conforms to very strong and aggressive means whose focus is mainly on getting them to be more western. He feels Huntington’s stance in resolving the issues is chauvinistic and that he believes that other civilizations ‘necessarily’ clash with the west. Not only this, Said feels that Huntington is misleading most of which is based on third hand and second hand information. In addition to this, Huntington’s sources are mostly journalists whose opinions are bound to be prejudiced as observed by Said and as such, are not the right materials to draw from when presenting an argument. So intrigued is Edward by Huntington’s ways that he points out that even the title of his work is copied and borrowed from Bernard Lewis’ essay, “The Roots of Muslim Rage”. He further criticizes the monolithic character of civilizations as well as the presumption of the unchanging duality of “us” and “them”. Edward maintains that Huntington only speaks for the West and lacks objectivity and also has a pre conceived notion that Muslims have no other aspect to their being rather than mere hatred for the west. To add to this cultures and civilizations are to be separated from each other as has been pointed out in the clash of civilizations and observed by Said. Edward points out that Huntington is trying to define cultures rather than understand them which is the one of the main drawbacks of this work. He feels that the clash of civilizations misses out on the alternative strands which are not the official cultures and can be regarded as counter cultures. Edward says that to assume complete homogeny between culture and identity is to miss on the vital understanding of civilizations. He moves on to say that Huntington cannot handle the astonishing variety of currents and counter currents and he cannot handle the questioning of age old established view points. The clash of civilization, according to him does not address, neither look towards collective and co-operative grounds. The weakest of the clash is the rigid separation assumed between cultures when in fact today’s world is all about migration and moving out and about and mixtures. In this regard Edward Said really criticizes Huntington’s work as duly lacking sense and sensibility. Where Edward Said’ Orientalism talks about a harmony of civilizations by means of understanding how our notions are developed justifiably through right or wrong concepts which develop and exist in society, Huntington’s work insists that civilizations can be framed in rigid moulds and have an unchanging structure. He states that there are no homogenous cultures as minorities are in existence all over the world and no one can really stay insulated from the other civilizations. Any idea of putting and enclosing them in water tight compartments, according to Said, would be to take away from their diversity and their power to grow and develop. He feels that the more rigid one is about this scenario, the more inaccurate one is not only about oneself but about the society at large. Edward feels that the “Clash of civilizations” is in fact an incitement and not an understanding of our present times and it is something which can be done away with. Read More