Orientalism" is a significant text in
postcolonial studies, published for the first time in 1978. In this seminal
book, Said investigates the relationship between the West (especially Europe
and the United States) and the East (mainly the Middle East) through the lens
of intellectual and visual representations.
He discussed two theories. These are,
1: Theory of Interpretation or Harmonists,
2: Mythological in nature.
1: Theory of Interpretation or Harmonists
When we are interpreting a text, we can read it
from multiple perspectives. That means we use theory for interpretation to
interpret a text. Orientalism's harmonics create problems because it represents
the west. The west writes a text for study to learn about the east.
Here, the theory of interpretation creates
confusion because orientalists are representations of the west. There is a gap
in the theory of interpretation. The west criticizes the east through the
theory of interpretation. The west writes about the east through text. Edward
said to criticize discourse about the theory of interpretation by following the
local perspective.
So the objective is the most important.
I: Who writes the text?
II: Why write?
III: For what audience are you targeting?
If you follow that, orientalism writes about the
west, and they write to get an idea about the east according to their opinion.
The orientalist writes for the whole world according to their perspective.
They write about the Orient according to their
opinion, which is why Edward criticizes the West in the Orientalism text, and
that creates violence because the West thinks that they are masters while the
East are slaves. Said makes it clear in his text that this is inauthentic in
reality.
The west gives ideas about orientations that are
not written because they think they are superior. They are highlighting the
east in the wrong way. So the West believes they cannot write about their
culture because it is their duty to do so. But said cities by the objective of
writers.
Colonizer. The Igbo culture says Africans are
not cultural because they have come here. Post-colonial writes: The east
started speaking.
Orientalists believe the east has no voice; it's
their duty to think of them. This critical thought has been shown in Achebe's
writing.
2: Mythological in nature.
Mythology means that a framework is using the
west to collect knowledge or produce knowledge about the east. According to
him, what is the purpose of the production of knowledge?
Production knowledge creates division and
increases according to the west. The west makes a difference to show the
inferiority of the east. The west makes a difference with the east; they think
they are superior, and the east should follow them.
According to Said, the knowledge should be
legal, but there we see that the knowledge that orientalism produces is neither
dominating nor dominating.
He tries to focus on the creation of new objects
for new knowledge. The knowledge subject is created by the west, but the east
can make knowledge about it. The orient is constant according to the west, but
it is not constant because the orient can change. As we see in a family, all
members are not the same. So, the orientalist people think that is not right
because identity and culture are changeable. Edward disagrees with this theory.
The knowledge should be legal. Knowledge does not divide.
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