Writing a Critique on Edward Said's 'Orientalism' and its contemporary relevance - Essay Example

? A Critique on Edward Said's 'Orientalism' and its contemporary relevance Introduction Over thirty, years have passed since Edward Said published his influential book, Orientalism, whereby he changed the vision of the Orient, which was been propagated across the Western knowledge. The assumptions made by Said brought a controversial debate that remains relevant even today. The Orientalism is a critique of the academic field of Oriental studies. This field has been a scholarly quest in a majority of the European universities for a number of centuries. Oriental Studies are a combination of scholarships consisting of ethnology, linguistics, philosophy, and decoding of culture via the detection, recovery, collection, and translation of Oriental texts. Said was categorical that his intentions were not to cover the whole area of Oriental studies, but to concentrate on how American, English, and French scholars view the Arab societies living in Middle East and North Africa (Trefflich 2011, p. 2). Said’s main concerns on Orientalism In the Orientalism, Said makes three main claims. The first claim is that, despite orientalist claiming to be an objective, non-interested, and an esoteric field, the truth is that it worked to serve political ends. In relation to this claim, Orientalist scholarship offered means that would help Europeans take over Oriental lands. Said further notes that, towards the final part of the twentieth century, Orientalism played a critical role in preserving American power in the Middle East and further defended the invasion and colonization of Palestine. However, in the contemporary world, there is less interest in the conventional fields of literature and philology. One fact that is worth mentioning is that American academic centers that offer Middle Eastern studies have immense concern in giving advice on public policy to the government (Said 1979, p. 31). In the second claim, Said argues that Orientalism assisted in defining Europe’s self-image. In relation to this claim, Said was of the opinion that creating an identity in every society and age entails establishing others and opposites. This is so because creating and maintaining each culture calls for the existence of a different and competing culture. Through Orientalism, the West began to perceive the Islamic culture as static in reference to time and place. In addition, the West also perceived the Islamic culture as uniform, foreign, and without the ability to define itself. In doing so, the West gained a sense of superiority in its culture and intellectual capacity (Said 1979, p. 36). As a result of this, the West perceived itself as innovative, dynamic, growing culture, and as an observer, a jury, and a judge of every Oriental behavior. Today, this claim becomes relevant since it offers an explanation for the Western imperialism, which could have been described by the West as an effort to redeem the degenerate world (Said 1979, p. 38). In the third claim, Said is of the opinion that Orientalism has created a false analysis of Islamic and Arab cultures. This is mainly due to the essentialist nature of the venture, which is the belief that there are possibilities of defining the essential characteristics of the Islamic culture and Arabic natives. The defined characteristics were viewed as uniformly negative. The definition brought out a perspective of a place in isolation from the mainstream of human development in arts, commerce, and sciences. This definition provides an inadequate perspective of Arabs and the Islamic culture, which by large influences the way the contemporary society views Arabs and Islam (Said 1979, p. 44). Orientalism further goes wrong in making an assumption that Islam has acquired a unity dating back from the seventh century and it is evident through the Koran and the contemporary Algerian, or Egyptian society. Therefore, the idea that Islamic culture suffers from static development is false and further overlooks the impacts of imperialism, colonialism, and ordinary politics experienced in the Islamic society (Hussein 2004, p. 75). Having briefly looked into Said’s claims, the following discussion will look into current issues within the society that are as a result of Orient studies. These issues are of relevance today since they impact on how we view and relate with different cultures across the world. The West and European dominance over the East One arising issue with regard to Orient studies is the perception that the West and Europe have managed to dominate the East through their deliberate efforts to form and accumulate knowledge regarding the East (Curtis 2009, p. 112). By extension, these two regions have used that knowledge to create a relationship based on European dominance. Therefore, the contemporary reason does not fall under the universal humanity category, but it is a culturally trait that is particular to the Europeans. An analysis of the prolonged Western dominance over countries in the East reveals that Orientalist is an essential component that has enabled the West to gain and sustain their dominance. The West creates and exploits the Orient for the purpose of gaining dominance and information from a deliberately constructed body of knowledge. This pool of knowledge is less concerned with the Orient but values it as a source of the Orientalist discourse (Curtis 2009, p. 113). The Orientalist scholars are of the opinion that the Orient is standard and lacks the ability to define itself. Therefore, the assumption is that defining the Orient from a Western viewpoint is unavoidable and has a scientific objective. This approach is one way through which the western culture and identity has emerged strong over other cultures. This gives the notion that the Orient is a platform through which the West justifies itself as exotic, distant, and lethal one hand and at the same time conquerable, on the other hand (Neil & Toni 2001, p. 123). One evident implication of the Orient studies is the current division between the East and the West due to the western dominance. This division is not likely to come to an end because the current body of Oriental scholars and politicians continue to get informed. The acquired information influences their decisions and research work, which distant them from the rest of the world. Further implication of the Orient studies is the creation of a feeling of failure to ever gain an understanding of individuals and their cultures. There is also concern over developmental programs initiated in the timeframe of Orientalism whereby most of such projects have been a failure (Varisco 2009, p. 305). Overcoming Orientalism Up to this point, one clear fact is that Orientalism offers an in-depth argument that has significantly impacted on the contemporary cultures, power structures, and cultural creation and development (Trefflich 2011, p11). In its definition, Orientalism is described as a discussion that discourages the ability to understand cultures and at the same time it is self-perpetuating. However, there have been numerous successful efforts by international and non-governmental organizations to end the culture of domination and accumulation of knowledge on others’ culture. In addition, such efforts also focus on creating opportunities for people to interact in a manner that promote real cultural understanding. Examples of current initiatives include cultural exchange programs that are aimed at promoting human empowerment, reconciling people, and breaking the tradition of institutionalized Orientalist discussions. In addition, these programs inspire humanitarian activism, which relates to attempts of changing developmental policies (Trefflich 2011, p. 13). Conclusion For a prolonged period, Orientalism has been under serious criticism. From a historical point of view, Orientalism causes several problems due to its uncertain relationship to issues of cause and effect. Today, truth is represented by individualistic representations of facts created by the dominating power. However, there are efforts to determine why certain events such as the American Revolution took place. In doing so, there will be a clear understanding of issues surrounding Orientalism especially the notion that Orientalism is one way for the West to exercise its dominance over the East. There is also a concern of whether the Orientalist discourse is another form of the colonial period, but this time in the un-colonized states (Curtis 2009, p. 123). Taking into consideration issues surrounding Orientalism, it is clear that the discourse is still relevant in the contemporary world. This is because there are numerous unresolved issues pertaining Orientalism such as the continued dominance of Western culture over the East. In addition, the fact that Orient studies continue to be undertaken in most of the European universities is a clear indication that the current divisions in cultures will remain if there is continued study of others culture. Therefore, ending conflicts arising from Orientalism require objective measures such as adopting cultural exchange programs. These measures allow people to appreciate others’ culture and utilize it for their own good and that of their counterparts. References List Curtis, M. (2009). Orientalism and Islam: European Thinkers on Oriental Despotism in the Middle East and India, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp. 108-125 Hussein, A. A. (2004). Edward Said: Criticism And Society.,Chicago, Verso. pp. 70-77 Neil, M. & Toni, L. (2001). Orientalism: From unveiling to hyperveiling. Journal of European studies 28 (2), pp. 121-135 Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism, New York, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp 27-50 Trefflich, C. (2011). Edward Said's Orientalism: A Reflection, London, GRIN Verlag. pp 2-15 Varisco, D. M. (2009). Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid. Journal of Islamic studies 20 (2), 304-306. Read More