A Critical Review of Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ and Amitav Acharya’s ‘Race and Racism in the Founding of the Modern World Order’.
- PO-253 – Lucy Lewis
Orientalism
Edward Said’s seminal book Orientalism presents a cultural and literary critique
of Western discourse and its commentary on the Eastern world. By exploring
Western representations of the East – specifically Middle Eastern nations
denominated as the Orient – it aims to expose the discipline of Orientalism as a
Western colonial institution that controls, restructures and ultimately holds
authority over the Orient. For Said, Orientalism has produced an image of the
Orient that over time has been naturalised, despite its falsities. The book itself
provides a foundational basis for postcolonial theory as it challenges the
accuracy of Western depictions of the Orient (Arthur, 2022) as well as seeking to
destabilise the power of Western knowledge used against it. Regarding the first
chapter, Said offers a well-researched and critical approach that provides
multiple in-depth analyses of Western literature commenting on the Orient to
support his aims, and that remains relevant today.
Chapter one is organised into four interrelated sections – each
corresponding with a central idea – that both introduce and develop some of the
key themes of the book: power, knowledge and domination. Standing at almost
80 pages, the chapter is essentially a goldmine of Orientalist texts ranging from the 17 th to the 20 th century. To deal with Orientalism, Said provides an extensive
list of these textual examples to ensure a rigorous approach to his argument –
and that he executes well. It is argued that knowledge of the Orient produces
power that can be used to dominate it, and in turn the Orient is denied
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