Edward Said Orientalism Summary

It is argued that post colonialism is the continuation of colonialism, by where colonies get freedom only from political rule, creating the complex process of self-imposed colonialism. Post colonialism expresses the human consequences or relations of external control, economic exploitation of natives in their lands, relations between the colonist and the people under such colonial rule, and the effects of the colonial ruling on the cultural aspects of the colony including its treatment of their women, language and humanity. Post colonialism aims at diluting theories based on intellectuality, economic Edward Said’s Orientalism aims to answer the question of how we think of the Middle East, for example: there is an inflexible notion of what

It asks, how do we come to understand people or strangers who look different to us in regards to the colour of their skin. The central argument of Orientalism is how we acquire; this is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests. That it is highly motivated, specifically Said argues that the way the West, Europe and the United Stated look at the countries of the Middle East and peoples of the Middle East is through a lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and people. He calls this lens through which we view that part of the world, 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” (Orientalism). Said paints a picture of how the West views a part of the world that they are unfamiliar with, that they know nothing about, almost a prejudice towards something because they do not understand or have any real

It is the framework we use to view the unfamiliar and strange, to make the people of the Middle East appear different and threatening. “Orientalism as an idea of representation is a theoretical one: ‘The Orient is a stage on which the whole East is confined’ in order to make the Eastern World ‘less fearsome to the West’; that the developing world, primarily the West, is the cause of colonialism” (Orientalism) the West has set themselves as the “standard” which other countries should aspire to be, that in itself is a form of colonialism, it is a ruling without the presence of Kings and Queens. “He argued that a long tradition of false and