Edward Said - Orientalism Notes
Edward Said - Orientalism Notes
" Said They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented. Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Does anyone see a problem with this epigraph #ey $erms The !rient " the place o# $urope%s oldest and richest colonies &'( o The geographical place o# the !ther o )ortrays a di##erent image to *mericans because we don%t have as much experience there &in comparison to the +rench and ,ritish( o -t is a man.made idea o -t allowed itsel# to become !rientali/ed through its own lac0 o# voice &1ramsci%s idea, pages 2 and 3( !rientalism " a way o# coming to terms with the !rient &'( o $xamines those who dominate&d( the !rient o 4anges over a variety o# disciplines o 5oo0s at the distinction between the !rient and the !ccident o $stablished and reestablishes a structure o# lies6myths about the !rient The !ccident " the coloni/ing powers, particularly in this study the ,ritish, +rench and *merican empires !riental " those who live in the !rient !rientali/ed " the act o# becoming !riental 7egemony " 1ramsci " where certain ideas prevail over others &3(. +rom 1ramsci%s Prison Notebooks8 9hat matters is that a new way o# conceiving the world and man is born and that this conception is no longer reserved to the great intellectuals, to pro#essional philosophers, but tends rather to become a popular, mass phenomenon, with a concretely world.wide character, capable o# modi#ying &even i# the result includes hybrid combinations( popular thought and mummi#ied popular culture. &:'3( 5atent !rientalism " the ideas behind how !rientalism is expressed &;<=.;<2( Mani#est !rientalism " the various stated views about !riental society, languages, literatures, history, sociology, and so #orth &;<2( " how !rientalism is expressed and implemented. Taxonomy " * scheme o# classi#ication. 7umanism " '. *n outloo0 or system o# thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. 7umanist belie#s stress the potential value and goodness o# human beings, emphasi/e common human needs, and see0 solely rational ways o# solving human problems. )hilology " '. the branch o# 0nowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships o# a language or languages. ;. literary or classical scholarship. Preface Do we use this 0nowledge #or the purposes o# coexistence and humanistic enlargement o# hori/ons or to dominate #or the purposes o# control and external dominion &xix(
>urrent tensions6con#licts between the ?.@. and the Middle $ast have made Orientalism more relevant than ever. &xix( 9hat role do academics6intellectuals play in geopolitics &xxi( 7as modern imperialism A ended, or A has BitC continued in the !rient since Dapoleon%s entry into $gypt two centuries ago &xxi.xxii( >onsiders himsel# a humanist. &xxii.xxiii( -n#luenced by the +rench and 1erman intellectuals and literature " his philological roots6models6pedigree. &xxiv, xxv( @tudies Weltliteratur &world6comparative literature( in an e##ort to observe the world as a symphonic whole Bwhile stillC preserveBingC the individuality o# each wor0. &xxiv( The devolution o# scholarship8 7olistic 0nowledge o# the past versus #ragmented 0nowledge o# the present. &xxvi( Dationalistic and ideological threats to education and intellectualism. &xxvi( Deo.!rientalism and the ?.@. 9ar on Terror &xxvii( Mirrored loss o# intellectual debate in -slamic cultures8 the loss o# -slamic ijtihad &independent decision.ma0ing regarding -slamic law(. &xxviii( The primacy o# humanism over rubrics li0e E*merica,% Ethe 9est,% or E-slam.% &xxviii.xxix(
Introduction $stablishes the 0ey terms !rient, !rientalism, !ccident, !riental, !rientali/ed, and 7egemony within this section !rient8 almost a $uropean invention; a place o# romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remar0able experiences; adFacent to $urope; A the place o# $urope%s greatest and riches and oldest colonies, the source o# its civili/ations and languages, it cultural contestant, and one o# its deepest most recurring images o# the !ther; de#ineBsC $urope &or the 9est( as a contrasting image, idea, personality, experience; an integral part o# $uropean material civili/ation and culture &'.;(. !rientalism8 a way o# coming to terms with the !rient that is based on the !rient%s special place in $uropean 9estern experience &'(; !rientalism expresses and represents that part culturally and even ideologically as a mode o# discourse with supporting institutions, vocabulary, scholarship, imagery, doctrines, even colonial bureaucracies and colonial styles &;(; a 9estern style #or dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the !rient &G(. !ccident8 The 9est &which he limits #or methodological purposes to ,ritain, +rance, and *merica(. -t cannot exist with the $ast, or the !rient " they re#lect and de#ine one another. ,oth are man.made. !rientali/ed8 The creation o# the !rient because it was discovered to be E!riental% and that it could be made !riental &=.2(. 7egemony8 the idea o# $uropean identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non. $uropean peoples and culture coupled with $uropean ideas about the !rient, themselves reiterating $uropean superiority over !riental bac0wardness, usually overriding the possibility that a more independent, or more s0eptical, thin0er might have had di##erent views on the matter &3(. Huali#ications o# Orientalism8 '. The !rient was not essentially an idea, or a creation with no corresponding reality. ;. ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their #orce, or more precisely their con#igurations o# power, also being studied &=(. G. !rientalism A is not an airy $uropean #antasy about the !rient, but a created body o# theory and
practice in which, #or many generations, there has been a considerable material investment. >ontinued material investment made !rientalism, as a system o# 0nowledge about the !rient, an accepted grid #or #iltering through the !rient into 9estern consciousness, Fust as that same investment multiplied " indeed, made truly productive " the statements proli#erating out #rom !rientalism into the general culture &2(. The three aspects o# his contemporary reality8 The distinction between pure and political 0nowledge. o -s there a distinction when it comes to !rientalism @ee pp. '; I '=. The methodological Juestion. o 5imiting to the )ioneers &,ritain and +rance( and the inheritor o# their empires &*merica(. Do you see any potential problems with this The personal dimension. o @aid is )alestinian and an *merican academic. -s there an inherent con#lict o# interest @ee p. ;KG.: on ?.@. involvement in the Middle $ast, speci#ically his attention to the ,arbary )irates. @ee Le##erson Mersus the Muslim )irates. &>hristopher 7itchens, City Journal, ;<<3(.
%&apter 1 $&e S'ope o( )rientalism -. --. Knowing the !riental 9hat the coloni/er 0nows o# a country6colony is what that colony becomes #or the coloni/er &G;( *uthority puts #orth the idea o# good &a0a compliant( versus bad &a0a disruptive( native &GG( The coloni/er believes he is saving the wretched &G=( ,inaries create the !rient&al( &:<( The Dapoleonic invasion o# '3KN a##ixed the notion o# the !rient as the province, the laboratory &:;.:G( *uthority commands the empire Fust as it does its obFect6colony &::.:=( -maginative 1eography and -ts 4epresentations8 Orientali ing the Oriental !bFects and history are assigned roles by man and a#ter these assignments ta0e place is when they become valid &=:(, #or it is a#ter that that we act on them @eparating theirs #rom ours geographically turns into normal vs. abnormal ideologically &=:( Due to the historical encounters with the Dear or +ar !rient, we begin to experience the !rient #or the #irst time &individually( with preconceived notions &=N( Throughout time the 9est regards -slam as misguided >hristianity, all the while ac0nowledging similarities to themselves and labeling the di##erences as wrong. The !ccident views Mohammed as the #alse prophet &2;( There is a three.way #orce on the !rient &the subFugated(, the !rientalist &the subFector(, and the 9estern consumer o# !rientalism &9estern populace(, which deems that the !rientalist depends on the preconceived notions #or veri#ication, not on truth, and thus truth becomes obscured &23( -nteresting point " the strati#ications o# hell in Dante%s !nferno. Mohammed is in the eighth circle, while )lato and *ristotle are only in the #irst. &2N.2K( ,y calling Mohammed an imposter over and over again, the 9est drives home the idea that all !rientals are imposters &3;(.
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)roFects !rientalism is8 '( the 9estern approach to the !rient and, ;( the dreams, images, and words used to describe it. )resents -slam%s geographically and culturally close ties to >hristianity &3:( 1ives three reasons as to why Dapoleon wanted to conJuer the $ast8 '. There was nowhere else to go in '3K3 ;. 7e was attracted to it since his adolescence G. -t was a li0ely proFect " tactically, strategically, historically, and...textually &N<( o Thus, our perceptions shape and de#ine our actions, as they did with Dapoleon. The e##ects o# Dapoleon were6are8 To restore a region #rom its present barbarism to its #ormer classical greatness; to instruct &#or its own bene#it( the !rient in the ways o# the modern 9est; to subordinate or underplay military power in order to aggrandi/e the proFect o# glorious 0nowledge acJuired in the process o# political domination o# the !rient; to #ormulate the !rient, to give it shape, identity, de#inition with #ull recognition o# its place in memory, its importance to imperial strategy, and its natural role as an appendage to $urope; to digni#y all the 0nowledge collected during colonial occupation with the title contribution to modern learning when the natives had neither been consulted nor treated as anything except as pretexts #or a text whose use#ulness was not to the natives; to #eel onesel# as a $uropean in command, almost at will, o# !riental history, time, and geography; to institute new areas o# speciali/ation; to establish new disciplines; to divide, deploy, schemati/e, tabulate, index, and record everything in sight &and out o# sight(; to ma0e out o# every observable detail a generali/ation and out o# every generali/ation an immutable law about the !riental nature, temperament, mentality, custom, or type; and, above all, to transmute living reality into the stu## o# texts, to possess &or thin0 one possesses( actuality mainly because nothing in the !rient seems to resist one%s powers8 these are the #eatures o# !rientalist proFection entirely reali/ed in the "es#ription de l$%gypte, itsel# enabled and rein#orced by Dapoleon%s wholly !rientalist engul#ment o# $gypt by the instruments o# 9estern 0nowledge and power &N2(. 5angues mOres " eventually #orgotten and unused " in an e##ort to subdue strangeness and hostility and bring the !rient closer to the !ccident &N3( 4e#erences de 5esseps%s idea o# the grand bene#its that will be brought to the world by the construction o# the @ue/ >anal &K<( o This Fust destroyed the !rient%s distance and made them more vulnerable &K;(. >risis -t is unreliable and irresponsible #or those who study !rientalism to rely solely on texts, #or it doesn%t present reality &K;.KG( o Travel boo0s try to present reality, but they don%t &KG( o -# the author describes what the reader experiences, then the author will be believed and deemed an authority on the subFect and subFects pertaining to the subFect &KG, K:( More !rientalists sur#aced in the 'Kth and ;<th centuries because o# the @ue/ >anal, $uropean voyages in search o# money, and thus !rientalism changed into an imperial institution &K=( @cholarship created the !rient&al( as an obFect o# study &K2(. !bFecti#ying the !ther. 1ood vs. bad !rient via language " good P classical period somewhere in a long.gone -ndia and bad P present.day !rient &KK(
-M.
The Talisman " sees individuality in the hegemonic other and ignoring this because he re#uses to dispel the notion o# hegemony &'<'(. The !riental can never escape the perception o# the !riental by the !rientalist, #or he is first an !riental, se#ond a human being, and last again an !riental &'<;(. The lure o# the exotic versus accepting the reality causes the coloni/er to be impatient and see things di##erent #rom him as abnormal &'<;(. ,ut, the bi/arre and abnormal become charming in the !rient &'<G(. Throughout the >old 9ar, the ?@ and ?@@4 coaxed the !riental to their sides #or the sa0e o# the !rientalists &'<N(. * contemporary chasm is growing ever.strongly between the !rient and !ccident via the disparity between texts and reality &'<K(. The contemporary intellectual can learn #rom !rientalism how, on the one hand, either to limit or to enlarge realistically the scope o# his discipline%s claims, and on the other, to see the human ground &''<(. @aid%s call to action #or contemporary postcolonial theorists.
%&apter 2 )rientalist Stru'tures and *estru'tures -. 4edrawn +rontiers, 4ede#ines -ssues, @eculari/ed 4eligion The 4omanic idea o# the regeneration o# $urope through the !rient. &''=( De#eating the materialism and mechanism &and republicanism o# !ccidental culture that would give rise to a new, revitali/ed $urope &''=(. Modern !rientalism is #ounded upon 4omantic intellectual and institutional structures8 creating the Enew% world " man becomes 1od. &';<( $xpansion " the !rient extends beyond -slamic lands 7istorical con#rontation " $ast versus 9est in the *ncient 9orld @ympathy " viewing !rientals as lesser beings who need 9estern intervention >lassi#ication " @ocial Darwinism8 classi#ying man and nature6his environment into types The Modern !rientalist a hero rescuing the !rient #rom the obscurity, alienation, and strangeness which he himsel# had properly distinguished &';'(. -s @aid guilty o# committing this #allacy
%&apter 3 )rientalism No -. 5atent and Mani#est !rientalism 5atent !rientalism8 The unconscious associations and connotations surround the #ield o# !rientalism #or 9estern readers and scholars, which were largely drawn #rom a distillation o# essential ideas about the !rient " its sensuality, its tendency to despotism, its aberrant mentality, its habits o# inaccuracy, its bac0wardness " into a separate and unchallenged coherence &;<=(. 5atent !rientalism is a constant that undergirds Mani#est !rientalism through a doctrinal or doxological authority &;;'(. o 5ane and @acy &@cholars(; +laubert and Derval &Dovelists( Mani#est !rientalism8 The ideas, associations, and connotations o# 5atent !rientalism mani#est themselves in the actions o# explorers, administrators, and commercial agents, who too0 this 0nowledge and implemented in coloni/ed areas &;;G.:(. o ,urton, 5awrence, and )hilby
,ritish and +rench use o# geography as a means o# constructing 0nowledge o# and control over the !rient8 o +or despite their di##erences, the ,ritish and the +rench saw the !rient as a geographical " and cultural, political, demographical, sociological, and historical " entity over whose destiny they believed themselves to have traditional entitlement. The !rient to them was no sudden discovery, no mere historical accident, but an area to the east o# $urope whose principal worth was uni#ormly de#ined in terms o# $urope, more particularly in terms speci#ically claiming #or $urope " $uropean science, scholarship, understanding, and administration " the credit #or having made the !rient what it was now. *nd this had been achievement " inadvertent or not is beside the point " o# modern !rientalism. &;;'( This is the basis o# hegemony.
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The 5atest )hase +ollowing 9orld 9ar --, the ?nited @tates becomes the preeminent global empire, assuming the mantles o# +rance and ,ritain @aid #ocuses on [email protected]*rab relations o 9hy overloo0 Lapan, -ndochina, >hina, -ndia, and )a0istan )opular *merican views and representations o# *rabs8 * race o# anti.Qionist, medieval and bac0wards people who happen to be the world%s maFor suppliers o# oil. 9ithout the usual euphemisms, the Juestion most o#ten being as0ed is why such people as the *rabs are entitled to 0eep the developed &#ree, democratic, moral( world threatened. +rom such Juestions comes the #reJuent suggestion that the *rab oil #ields be invaded by the marines BsicC &;N2(. 9hat about other Muslims 9hy limit this to Fust *rabs 5ambasting Morroe ,erger " 9ho 0new academics could be so catty &;NN.KG( The Modern !rientalist%s role in ?.@. #oreign policy " Telling policyma0ers what they want to hear $schewing !riental literature " 9e don%t do empathy &;K<.'( >ultural relations policy8 !rientalism as a weapon to combat threats to *merican interests. +or what was clearly at sta0e, 1raves argued &to very receptive ears, by the way(, was the need #or Emuch better *merican understanding o# the #orces which are contending with the *merican idea #or acceptance by the Dear $ast. The principal o# these are, o# course, communism and -slam &;K=(. -s *merican !rientalism better than $uropean !rientalism 9hich is the lesser o# two evils &;K=.2( Lust more o# the same8 ,ut the principal dogmas o# !rientalism exist in their purest #orm today in studies o# the *rabs and -slam. 5et us recapitulate them here8 one is the absolute and systematic di##erence between the 9est, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the !rient, which aberrant, underdeveloped, in#erior. *nother dogma is that abstractions about the !rient, particularly those based on texts representing a Eclassical% !riental civili/ation, are always pre#erable to direct evidence drawn #rom modern !riental realities. * third dogma that the !rient is eternal, uni#orm, and incapable o# de#ining itsel#; there#ore it is assumed that a highly generali/ed and systematic vocabulary #or describing the !rient #rom a 9estern standpoint is inevitable and even scienti#ically EobFective.% * #ourth dogma is that the !rient is at bottom something either to be #eared Kthe Rellow )eril, the Mongol hordes, the brown dominions( or to be
controlled &by paci#ication, research and development, outright occupation whenever possible( &G<<.'(. 7e represents those who cannot represent themselves8 >lichSs about how Muslims &or Mohammadans, as they are still sometimes called( behave are bandied about with a nonchalance no one would ris0 in tal0ing about blac0s or Lews &G<'(. Merely -slam8 !rientalism de#ends -srael and condemns -slam. ,y a concatenation Ba series o# interconnected eventsC o# events and circumstances the @emitic myth bi#urcated in the Qionist movement; one @emite went the way o# !rientalism, the other, the *rab, was #orced to go the way o# the !riental &G<3(. More lambasting8 *lroy and )atai. They had it coming. &G<3.''( 9hat grips the !rientalist, i# it is not " as it certainly is not " love o# *rab science, mind, society, achievement -n other words, what is the nature o# *rab presence in mythic discourse about him &G''( Does anyone else thin0 he is setting up a straw man to burn down, especially considering his previous arguments ,urn that straw man8 Two things8 number and generative power &G''(. the only way in which *rabs count is as mere biological beings; institutionally, politically, culturally they are nil, or next to nil. Dumerically and as the producers o# #amilies, *rabs are actual &G';(. *n *rab !riental is that impossible creature whose libidinal energy drives him to paroxysms o# overstimulation " and yet, he is as a puppet in the eyes o# the world, staring vacantly out at a modern landscape he can neither understand nor cope with &G';(. !rientals !rientals !rientals8 +or the ?nited @tates today is heavily invested in the Middle $ast, more heavily than anywhere else on earth8 the Middle $ast experts who advise policyma0ers are imbued with !rientalism almost to a person &G;'(. The #act is that !rientalism has been success#ully accommodated to the new imperialism, where its ruling paradigms do not contest, and even con#irm, the continuing imperial design to dominate *sia &G;;(. The [email protected] $ast relationship is a one.sided one, with the ?nited @tates a selective customer o# a very #ew products &oil and cheap manpower, mainly(, the *rabs highly diversi#ied consumers o# a vast range o# ?nited @tates products, material and ideological &G;:(.
Afterword -s Orientalism anti.9estern &GG<( @ee p. G:3. 9ho is @aid representing in Orientalism +or indeed, the subaltern #an spea0, as the history o# liberation movements in the twentieth century eloJuently attest. Thus, as its author - have been seen as playing an assigned role8 that o# a sel#.representing consciousness o# what had #ormerly been suppressed and distorted in the learned texts o# a discourse speci#ically designed to be read not by !rientals but by other 9esterners. &GG=( 9hat do you ma0e o# this Juotation Orientalism is a partisan boo0, not a theoretical machine &GGK(. 9hat do you ma0e o# this Juotation Dowhere do - argue that !rientalism is evil, or sloppy, or uni#ormly the same in the wor0 o# each !rientalist. ,ut - do say that the guild o# !rientalists has a speci#ic history o# complicity with imperial power, which it would be )anglossian to call irrelevant &G:'(.
Do you #ind @aid%s unswerving commitment to the cause o# )alestinian sel#.determination problematic &';:( 7ow does this a##ect Orientalism -s Orientalism one o# the late twentieth century%s #ew truly totemic critical wor0s &';=( The three patterns in the critical response to Orientalism8 o The de&Orientali ation o# Orientalism &the method( -s !rientalism simply a codeword #or virtually any 0ind o# !thering process that involves the mapping o# dominating practices o# 0nowledge6power onto peoples seen, however temporarily or strategically, as culturally Emarginal,% economically Eunderdeveloped,% or psychologically Ewea0% &';=.2( o The re&Orientali ation o# Orientalism &the boo0( !rientalism%s exclusionary and immobili/ing strategies are either inadvertently reproduced by those who see0 to uncover alternative examples o# its wor0ings &Eanti. !rientalist !rientalism( or are consciously deployed by those who, constructing themselves as the 9est%s victims, turn against their adversaries in uncompromising gestures o# collective pride and righteous anti.imperialist revenge &E!ccidentalism%(. &';2( o The unre#lected Orientalism of Orientalism itself. &';2(
Notes on +0ntrodu'tion to The Post-Colonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. by Gra&am /uggan *s0s not what postcolonialism is, but rather what can postcolonialism do o The danger exists that a rare#ied critical6theoretical consciousness might up turning the speci#ic realities o# social struggle into an in#inite spiral o# indeterminate abstractions &G(. Ma0ing the ideas behind its obFective too abstract to where they cannot properly be analy/ed and remedied. The #ield is too broad &since it could encompass all types o# people over several millennia( and too narrow &since it could eclipse other related oppositional practices( &;( >ritiJues o# postcolonialism only adds to its discourse &G( Most popular literature now is being produced by #ormer colonies that only add to the centers o# the $mpire &:( o -.e., wor0s being translated into $nglish and being published by $nglish and *merican publishers. >ultural capital is introduced here &:(. )ostcolonialism vs. )ostcoloniality " postcolonialism P anti.colonial intellectualism that reads and valorises the signs o# social struggle in the #aultlines o# literary and cultural texts; and postcoloniality P cultural value assigned to the language o# resistance that surrounds postcolonialism &2(. )ostcolonial theorists #eed into the new global capitalist order &@tuart 7all%s paraphrase N(, but this critiJue only homogeni/es the critics. 9orldliness vs. >osmopolitanism " worldliness P incorporating the peripheries% scholarship into the discourse to understand a wider world view. >osmopolitanism P #ocuses on the asymmetries o# power within the realm o# cultural tolerance &K, ''( >ultural di##erence " the struggle o# power that evidences itsel# through the commodi#ication o# postcolonial criticism &'G(. The exotic !ther appeals to and draws in the coloni/er, and he acts upon in it in an e##ort to ma0e it li0e himsel#, thus erasing the exoticism #rom the coloni/ed &'G.':(. The exotic spectacle disguises the !thersT power and displaces it &':(.
*esthetics o# decontextualisation " the urge to identi#y with oppressed groups through commodi#ication, which inherently distances the consumer #rom the group since 0nowledge o# the group is not encapsulated within the product itsel#. >ommodity #etishism " the study o# the !ther by scholars which eventually, given their respective talents, rises these scholars to almost talismanic status &'K( o Three aspects are at wor0 here8 leveling.out historical experience, imagined access to the !ther by buying scholarship that concerns itsel# with the !ther, and obFecti#ying the !ther by ma0ing his subFect a commodity &'K(. Marginality allows rebellion, but in this neocolonialist world the marginal !ther is integrated within the imperial center &;<.;'(. >ultural translation " a commodi#ied way o# digesting the marginali/ed !ther, ma0ing the !ther understandable in the center%s terms &;:(, which eventually homogeni/es the !thers% voices to the point where they can stand in #or each other. *udiences are Fust as heterogeneous as authors &G<(. *udiences assign value &G'(.
Notes on +%on'lusion to The Post-Colonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. by Gra&am /uggan Two histories have contributed to the discourse o# current postcolonial theory8 the *nglophone6>ommonwealth and the ?@6minority paths &;G<(. >ommonwealth 5iterature places $nglish 5iterature at the center and the rest &writings o# the coloni/ed( at the periphery, into a neat division o# us versus !ther &;G'(. Dew 5iteratures as a new umbrella term. Does it di##erentiate between nationalities or regroup these writers into a newly named, but still the same, arena &;G=( Huestions what post means in postcolonialism " does it mean a#ter, beyond, #inished )ostcolonial studies might better be seen as an analytical attempt to globalise the already wide scope o# cultural studies &;:<(. The *mericanisation o# the postcolonial has examined how the !ther contributes to the *merican nation, both as being incorporated into it &via minority discourse( and as being scouted into its universities &;:'(. The exotic...is the ghost that comes bac0 to haunt the corridors o# postcolonial critical history &;:G(. )edagogical practice a##ects the political e##ectiveness o# postcolonialism. &;:G.;:=(. Ta0ing a sel#.provocative stance can create8 '( a pedagogy o# resistance that de.exotici/es the !ther and Juestions that categori/ation that the !ther is placed into, and ;( postcolonial teachers presenting themselves as the embodiment # the !ther &;:2( The postcolonial teacher may claim that s6he is best to teach the subFect because s6he is a postcolonial person. o This obFecti#ies white +irst 9orld students as the !ther in this context. &,rennan ;:2. ;:3( >elebrity authors o#ten eclipse other postcolonialists and essentially create a new canon within the #ield &;:N( o )edagogic imaginary " Lohn 1uillory " the creation o# an intellectual community by creating a canon within the discourse &;:N( o This homogeni/es the heterogeneous viewpoints " a text or set o# texts that spea0s #or the whole, &which @aid cautioned against and tried to avoid(. 7arsonno%s survey o# postcolonial syllabi and course.lists shows that8 '( )ostcolonialism ranges across several disciplines, and o#ten advocates an interdisciplinary nature ;( they address speci#ic issues critically and abstractly, G( )ostcolonial studies spans the world #rom 7ong Kong to the ?@, and :( anthologies or readers are widely used.
4eaders and anthologies are not comprehensive, even though the genre itsel# claims it to be, nor could they ever be comprehensive. o They serve as metalanguage to the theory itsel# &;=G.;=:( o 7ow the anthologies themselves are structured seem to lac0 structure &;=:( o ,ite.si/ed chun0s o# 0nowledge substitute #or larger arguments; the reader thus ris0s standing in #or what it intends to stimulate " #urther research " plying a trade instead in aphoristic position.ta0ings within the context o# a sel#.ingratiating postcolonial citation cartel &;=2(. o They are contradictory to the pedagogic imaginary &;=3(. @ome principle theoretical Juestions include those concerning conceptual boundaries and the limits o# power6authority &;=3(. 9e should Juestion theory itsel# too, since theory maintains institutional hierarchies &;=3(. There are two e##ects o# theory8 '( self&referentiality and reduplication o# theoretical precepts " re#erencing the sel#6authority on postcolonialism because s6he is postcolonial and recapitulating the same dogmas, and ;( #riti#al orthodo'ies mediated through celebrity #igures " pointing to the same voices as authority #igures on the subFect and homogeni/ing what is being said. o )ostcolonial theory, seen this way, contributes toward the #urther exoticisation o# Enon. 9estern% peoples and cultures whose material disadvantages are converted into symbolic capital under theory%s imperialist way &;=K(. The goal o# theory is to undo, through, a contesting o# premises and postulates, what you thought you 0new, so the e##ects o# theory are not predictable. Rou have not become master, but neither are you where you were be#ore. Rou re#lect on your reading in new ways. Rou have di##erent Juestions to as0 and a better sense o# the implications o# the Juestions you put to wor0s you read &>uller Jtd. in 7uggan ;2<(.
1is'ussion 2uestions '. @aid ma0es an explicit point o# naming which historical periods and peoples he will be examining throughout this text " post.'Nth c. *rabs and -slam. 7ow do his conclusions relate to other !rientals 9hat are some o# his conclusions ;. !n pages GN.GK @aid paraphrases >romer and remar0s that !rientals or *rabs are therea#ter shown to be gullible, Edevoid o# energy and initiative,% much given to E#ulsome #lattery,% intrigue, cunning, and un0indness to animals; !rientals cannot wal0 on either a road or a pavement &their disordered minds #ail to understand what the clever $uropean grasps immediately, that road and pavements are made #or wal0ing(; !rientals are inveterate liars, they are Elethargic and suspicious,% and in everything oppose the clarity, directness, and nobility o# the *nglo.@axon race. 9hat reaction does this elicit #rom you 9hy must we be aware o# our reactions Do they change or add to the discourse Do or could they change the situations o# the coloni/ed in a post.6neo.colonial world G. @aid Juotes Kissinger as a contemporary example o# power#ul6strong vs. powerless6wea0 &:2.:3(. This re#erence, now, is too dated. 9hat would be some other examples o# this today 7ave the 0ey players changed -s this signi#icant 9hy or why not :. The construction o# the @ue/ >anal dragBgedC the !rient into the 9est &K;(. 9hat implication does this have #or the !rientals The !rientalists Those who study !rientalism =. 9hat is the di##erence between what he calls latent and mani#est !rientalism 9hat roles do they play in #orming current and past !rientalist discourse 2. Though this text is GG years old, does @aid%s description o# the *rabic image &on pages ;N2.;N3( still #it today%s stereotypes 7ave we become more steeped in this stereotype 7ow can we cleanse our minds o# these perpetuating perceptions
3. Do *merican pro#essors, whether they are !riental or not, indoctrinate !riental students into the power#ul realm o# !rientalism today 9hat e##ect might this have on the students *merican institutions !rientalist discourse -# this is still happening, is there a way to stop it N. @aid claims that !rientalism is rooted in geography. 7ow does this connect to, or disconnect #rom, &or both(, neocolonialism and the coloni/ed living in the imperial center K. 7ow does @aid%s Orientalism #eed into the commodi#ying structure o# postcolonial theory as put #orth by 7uggan in -ntroduction8 9riting at the Margins '<. To borrow 7uggan%s concluding Juestion, what does #inding the !ther exotic say about you