Orientalism by Edward Said

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                  Welcome to my blog. Here in this blog I will share my view on Edward Said On Orientalism. This particular task was assigned by Dilip Barad sir. 

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💠 Edward Said :-

       Edward William Said, (born November 1, 1935, Jerusalem—died September 25, 2003, New York, New York, U.S.), Palestinian American academic, political activist, and literary critic who examined literature in light of social and cultural politics and was an outspoken proponent of the political rights of the Palestinian people and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

💠 What is Orientalism :-

                        "Orientalism” is a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous. Edward W. Said, in his groundbreaking book, Orientalism, defined it as the acceptance in the West of “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny and so on.”

                   Orientalism revolutionized the study of the Middle East and helped to create and shape entire new fields of study such as Post-Colonial theory as well influencing disciplines as diverse as English, History, Anthropology, Political Science and Cultural Studies.

The fact that those representations of the Orient had very little to do with what I knew about my own background in life. So I decided to write the history of that.

~ Edward Said

                      According to Edward Said Orientalism began for two reasons, first one is immediate thing and another one is which has a much longer history in my own life was the constant sort of disparity I felt between what my experience of being an Arab was, and the representations of that that one saw in art. 

                        The whole history of these Orientalist representations, which portrayed the Muslim and the Oriental in effect a lesser breed, in other words, the only thing they understand is the language of force.

💠Representation of real history:-

                                                History as a branch of knowledge begins with a distinct handicap. While there may be serious disputes about whether theology, for example, has any object, there is a broad consensus that the object of history does not exist at all. In view of this fact it is perhaps no wonder that skepticism about history’s claims to knowledge has always been widespread.

💠 Israel-Palestine issue :-

 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory, but 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and the territory was divided into 3 parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

              Said talked about the issue of Palestine that what is the condition of the people there, they have not their mother land because of the forcefully occupation by Israel. From 1948 to present time Palestinian are suffering a lot for the peace and their homeland but Western countries do not take any kind of action on this issue. We also can say that why Europe and America built a new state for Jew people surrounding Islamic countries, if they have love for Jew people then why they vanished jew from Europe. So, Said explained this issue through cultural, religious and political views.

💠Reference :

Said, Edward., "Interview: Orientalism", Assistant Editor Jeremy Smith, Executive director & producer, Sut Jhally University of Massachusetts-Amherst