Orientalism

Orientalism - Edward Said is a Palestinian-American scholar who coined the term “Orientalism” to characterize how the West negatively portrays Eastern culture in the news and popular culture. Specifically, Said is concerned with the ways in which scholars, politicians, and writers in the West represent the West as the superior culture and thus Eastern culture as inferior. The West depicts Eastern culture as a threat based on perceptions rather than experience, which not only disregards all positive defining aspects of the culture, but it also creates a false reality of what the West knows about the East (Palestine Diary, 2012).

The concept of Orientalism was also fashioned to rationalize the colonization of the East by the West. That being said, I chose Orientalism as explained by Said in Palestine Diary (2012) documentaries because understanding a tool that is used for colonization can also be a tool to decolonize. An important aspect of Orientalism is that the concept is not limited to only one culture. Orientalism also shapes North American understandings of Asian cultures and third world women. Orientalism contributes to the perception that tells white Canadian and American families what Asian-background women are best fit to take care of their children. Thus, Orientalism fits within a decolonized and transnational framework that is helpful to recognize the false reality that we may have about many cultures, which gives us the opportunity to replace it with actuality. Decolonizing the West’s portrayal of the East and other cultures looks like challenging all political and popular media representations made by the West that fabricate an false belief about another culture.

Academic Source/URL:

Diary, P. (2012, October 28). Edward Said On Orientalism. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVC8EYd_Z_g

Keywords: orientalism, Edward Said, Western culture, Eastern culture, false reality

Pseudonym: Kim Kardashian