Why this book?
- Said shows the link between knowledge and power in the West's representation of the East.
- The book is a foundational text of postcolonial studies and has shaped Middle Eastern studies.
- By analyzing Orientalist texts, it models a critical way of reading texts and of cultural critique.
- Its three chapters follow the course of Orientalism from the modern era to American dominance.
- Later editions, with an afterword and a preface, contain Said's response to his critics.
About the book
Edward Said's Orientalism was first published in 1978. In it Said takes "Orientalism" as a critical concept for the West's image-making about the East, meaning the societies of Asia and North Africa, especially the Middle East. His argument is that these images rest not on knowledge and mutual understanding but on the West's political and ideological power and dominance, and that they have helped to justify colonialism. In Said's view, Orientalism assumes a deep and absolute difference between East and West, and holds the East to be static and unchanging and therefore unable to define its own identity.
Said does not treat Orientalism merely as a political plot that passively shows itself in culture and scholarship. He sees it as a dynamic exchange, with individual writers on one side and, on the other, the institutions and political interests of the three great empires: Britain, France and America.
The book has three chapters. The first, "The Scope of Orientalism," surveys historical experiences and philosophical and political views from various angles. The second, "Orientalist Structures and Restructures," traces the developments of modern Orientalism in the works of poets, artists and scholars. The third, "Orientalism Now," deals with the expansion of colonialism up to the Second World War and the replacement of British and French dominance by American dominance. The final pages are the author's notes.