Populo - Volume 1, Issue 2

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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