Words and Pictures Across Cultures - Essay Example

? Words and Pictures across Cultures Words and Pictures across Cultures Orientalism has been a debate between different people and cultures over many years and one of the acclaimed writers in the field is renowned American author, Edward Wadie Said. Edward was a professor of English at Columbia University and had a rich background with philosophical issues that made him ideal for various arguments on the standard topic of Eastern Studies. Said wrote the book Orientalism in the year 1978 in which he explored various intriguing issues regarding the Middle East from the Western perspective. In his work, Said portrayed the relationship between the East and the Western and European countries to appear rather vague and entirely political. This is from the manner in which he states that the Middle East assisted the Europe and the West in the mere establishment of a launch but the latter actually proceeded well independently to reach at the contemporary position (Said, 2003). A critique to this argument is made by John Mackenzie a British philosopher who argues that were it not for the Orient, the cultural civilization experienced in the West would be nothing but a mere illusion. This brings forth a debate on the role that the Orient played to contemporary civilization in Europe and the West as a whole through various works of art. The first concept that Edward stood by was the fact that the Middle East countries had tried their best to try to outbid the West politically over the years and this was portrayed through the various images created disgracing the West. This was a very important aspect in that the Middle East has always been a vital region in the development of imagery and cultural backdrop that the west has many at times found insulting. Edward goes ahead to state that the mixture and conjoining of cultures from the Middle East and the Western world makes the world a rather more insecure place to live. He expresses this from the manner through which the Arab countries are noted to Europe and the Western countries. The East is considered a less ideal place to gain insight in any respect from the notion of terrorism that runs across the minds of the vast amount of Western people. Other than being seen as the countries responsible for the oil provision in the world, the amount of positive retrospect offered towards the countries is negligible. There is also the expression of this through comic books written in the Asian languages that tend to express various cultural vices and religions. The comics have found their ways to the West and the notion of the relationship between the two regions embedded in the young brains of children as they develop and thus gain insight on the world in a given perspective (Varisco, 2007). Edward stated the incorporation of the Islamic culture that sweeps across most of the countries in the Middle East to creating more harm than efficiency to the West as a whole. This is from the fact that the link would lead to a much more war prone world due to the amount of military activity that would take place. Insecurity would arise from the fact that the amount of mistrust could escalate and thus the people would do anything to defend their self and causing a form of tension. He explains that this has already been witnessed in the past through the Cold War where the West and the Middle East had a rather tense relationship which was eased by the agreement of the major countries to hold on to their rights and respect cultural and religious boundaries (Said, 2003). Edward’s major thesis on the concept of Orientalism is that he takes the notion to be a political doctrine. The relay of Cultural paintings and images expressing the notion of the Middle East have always been present since the 19th century, however, the political doctrine always emerges in the imagery despite the effort to retain it. Said states further that the attribute to this is from the manner through which the West treats the Orient. Naturally, the West is known to run the world politically and thus views the west as just a subdued weak region. He goes ahead to state that Orientalism is a notion characterized by many different factors and one of them is aggression (Said, 2003). Focusing on the aggression factor, the explanation of this is from the manner through which the West looks over the activities of the West and engages in their day-to-day political activities. The West many at times without the authority and consultation of the United Nations has found means of indulging into the politics of different countries such as Iraq. A clear representation of this is the Iraq war in which the United States engaged in an effort to curb the amount of hostility witnessed in the country. Contemporary painters have made images clearly defining the bloodshed experienced in the war and thus clarifying the Western retrospect of the Middle East. A galore of the works of art is announced occasionally where interested parties meet and most of what they do is analyze the paintings in a manner that mostly seems political. Rich merchants go to a point of purchasing the paintings and store them in private lounges as they give them a sense of political charisma. Edward states that the actions were rather imperative as they assisted in the freeing of people who could not have gained independence from oppression. This he clarifies is a reason as to why the West subdues the Orient and that were it not for the political breakthrough of the West on its own it would be dwelling in some of the deplorable conditions experienced in the East (Sered, 2006). The other factor that Edward focuses on in his view of Orientalism is judgment. This as stated earlier is through the manner that the rest of the world looks at the countries of the Middle East. The West claims that independence from the Middle East ideas has been an integral notion for its development and an example of this is the amount of freedom that the press has. Political tension has always been an issue expressed by the West when discussing issues pertaining to the Middle East. The media in the contemporary world has evolved to a manner that it has freedom to express the views of other people. The West has used this as an opportunity to get back at the west through various political agendas that make it look terrible. Musicians of the contemporary times have also received credit for focusing on the issues that the Middle East have. The news and music are some of the major visual and artistic means the West has used to express views. This reception of this has been negative from the Asian countries a fact that has occasionally spurred them to gain revenge through different means (Askander, 2010). Will to truth and knowledge are other factors that Edward incorporates in his argument s to show the manner through which the Middle East relationship with the West and Europe has been purely political and that no borrowed characteristics exist from the East. Determination to truth and knowledge come in from the fact that the Middle East finds it rather hard to accept the notion of capitalism as an ideology as compared to their communism. The Middle East is considered by Europe and the West to be rather unsuccessful because they do not have the urge to accept the fact that personal hard work is the basis of success. This can be attributed to American poets who presented this in a rather visual manner by stating the flaws that communism bears. As Edward states that Europe developed completely independent of the Middle East, the notion seems rather ideal from the fact that had Europe gone by the concept of political communism, it would be rather behind in terms of development. This is because the Middle East does not accommodate the motion of individualism but rather the fact that working as a union assists in the achievement of goals. This factor is ideally wrong according to Edward as it brings forth indolence that goes on to the top leadership or rather the politics of the country. Looking at the other perspective given by John Mackenzie, the statement that Europe and the West developed independent of the Orient and that all that is involved in the relations are political and rather negligible cultural ideologies seems rather overrated. He states that were it not for the Orient, some of the acclaimed cultural developments that the West experiences could not be present (Mackenzie, 2006). To describe this, one of his ideologies is that the vast amount of images and paintings from the Orient brought forth to the western cultures brings in a sense of uncertainty in oneself as the host Western countries do not engage and appreciate their works as they do those outsourced from the East. The images characterized in this theory are such as the romantic ones of the Kama sutra that have played a major role in the revolutionizing of the romance in the West and the political aspect. John argues that Edward focuses more on the contemporary times and goes ahead to neglect the vast amount of information bore in the past. This is from the fact that the past defines the future and that everything witnessed in the contemporary world has a past. John states that the history of most of the activities carried out in Europe and the West have the base being the Middle East. John focuses his argument on imperialism where he basis most of his arguments and then continues to other civil and economic matters (Little, 2008). Through imperialism, he describes the fact that the Middle East developed rather independently prior to the revolution of the west. The notion of imperialism holds that the relationship between countries and cultures is in a rather uneven manner. This was the case in the Middle East until the west came in and started to borrow some of the aspects that it claims to have bore on its own. John goes largely to conflict all forms of scholarly analysis that do not hold the strings of cultural development. One of the things that John states to have been borrowed by the West is the artistic nature of the Middle East (Mackenzie, 2006). One of the major concepts borrowed in terms of the artistic nature is the architecture. Architecture in the Middle East developed as far back as the 17th century. The area’s occupants are majorly Muslims. The community has its unique manner through which it lives and the manner in which the buildings are constructed. The mosques are constructed in a rather dome and sleek kind of manner and the interior design is also exclusive. An example of this is the Faisal Mosque in Pakistan. This mosque has its one of a kind construction design that has been copied by many West countries in the construction of churches and largely the construction of airports. According to John, theatres and acting are some of the issues that the West has borrowed from the East. The explanation of this comes and verified from the manner in which some of the European actors ape the acting of the Middle East countries. Most of the issues that the Middle East focused on in the ancient times were those relating to family and love. At that time, the West majorly focused on films involving the political situations held in their countries. Most of the European countries and the entire West majorly focused on the resolution of these problems and did not actually pay attention to societal issues. It was at around this time that some of the Western directors started paying attention to issues in the East (Varisco, 2007). John argues that most of the concepts and movie themes involving love and family that were portrayed in the west came from viewing of the East where the directors took advantage of its less developed industry. These movies acted up to date and this shows the fact that some of these genres of the film industry would be non-existent were it not for the East. The music presented in the West also happens to be similar to that of the East to some extent. This is from the manner through which the themes are incorporated from the Middle East lifestyle as also explained in the films. Mackenzie discredits the notions bore by Edward that stated the West as developing completely independent of the East and that the ties relayed between them are nothing but of a dictatorial manner. He states that the relationship is much more intense and thus the relationship between these two ideological rivals deserves exploration in a rather large manner. In general, the analysis of this point is that John states that the East has been a source of inspiration for many of the artists and other related professions that subdue the West. John goes back to his earlier explanation that the West focuses on the modern form of Orientalism and completely undermines the notion of historical Orientalism. John discredits this by stating that the contemporary form of Orientalism majorly gains attribute from the vast amount of political conflicts that the world goes trough on a daily basis. The historical form of Orientalism was such that the people involved were very hard working and lived in unison with each other regardless of the origin. Mackenzie focus on another notion of Orientalism where he talks about feminization where he states that it appears rather skewed from the ideologies that the west tends to embed in it. There is the statement that the European male gaze is rather a contemporary issue that does not offer the required respect human beings should accord (McVee, 2012). The male gaze does not give any attention as long as the ending ends in intimacy. This lack of respect is opposed largely by John who states that the importance of the Orient has rusted over the years due to the selfishness of the West. He further states that men from the west tend to sexualize the orient in an effort to explore their deeper emotions. John is known to go to a rather vast extent in his effort to de-politicize the relationship between the West and the Orient. This is from the manner through which he states that the poems from the west and the paintings that are offered in the major galleries portray the west and east relation to be nothing but a political agenda. It is at this point, where he tends to lose at the debate but then the notion of economic decency sets in. John recognizes the economic aspect as being one that many of the artists have made reference to over the advancing years. The economic conditions in the East are rather excellent from the manner in which the regions are blessed. This is from the many rich oil fields that the country has and the number of merchants that explore to invest in them. This has generally led to a relationship with the west where there are different types of trades carried out b individual businesspersons between these countries. This is a concept that John uses rather strongly to depoliticize the Orient. Many artists and designers have their artistic childhood from the East as the area has admirable talent since time immemorial. The artistic nature of these people offers many designs in terms of the paintings and the clothes that they create. Japan is one admirable country from where countries in Europe and the entire west have borrowed some of the cloth making techniques. This has led to many developments from the west. China is another country from where the artisanship of cars and various other commodities such as phones comes from. These points give John the backing that he requires to prove that the Orient has been a very important means of Western Civilization (Martin, 2007). Many ideologies revolve around the notion of how the West has benefited from the Orient and the manner through which these two regions view each other. However, the debates are calmed down by the fact that both of the regions have had a lot to learn from each other over the years. This factor brings in unity between the countries and this is very important for the two regions to develop not only politically, but also economically and culturally. References Said, E. (2003). Orientalism. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Mackenzie, J. (1995). Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts. New York: McGraw Hill Publishers. Varisco, D. (2007). Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid. Massachusetts: Taylor & Francis. Sered, D. (2006). Orientalism. Retrieved on 16th April 2012 from http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Orientalism.html Little, D. (2008). American Orientalism: The Middle East and America Since 1945. New York: Routledge. Burke, E. (2008). Genealogies of Orientalism: History Theory and Politics. Los Angeles CA: Pine Forge Press. Mackenzie, J. (2006). Imperialism and Popular Culture. New York: Cengage Learning. McVey, G. (2012). Postscript on Orientalism. Retrieved on 16th April 2012 from http://memory-theatre.blogspot.com/2012/04/postscript-on-orientalism.html Ashcroft,B. (2009). Edward Said. Albany, State University of New York Press. Askander, A. (2010). Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation. New York: McGraw Hill Publishers. Abukhalil, A. (2012). Ecological Orientalism in the Economist. Retrieved on 16th April 2012 from http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/04/ecological-orientalism-in-economist.html Martin, R. (2007). Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress. New York: Routledge Read More