Theoretical Foundations of Orientalism by Edward Said

Edward Said is one of the most influential literary critics of the 20th century. Born in Jerusalem in 1935 to a Christian family, Said grew up in a multicultural environment. His family moved frequently between Jerusalem, Lebanon, Cairo, and the United States, never settling in one place for long. As a teenager, Said was expelled from Victoria College, prompting his family to send him to the United States to study at Mount Hermon. He later pursued graduate studies at Harvard University and spent the majority of his professional career as a professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Said was born during a tumultuous period in history, marked by the British mandate over Palestine and much of the Middle East, as well as the wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine that led to the establishment of Israel. Witnessing the colonization of his homeland and other regions by powerful nations deeply influenced Said’s work. His critical and political writings often reflect his personal experiences and historical context, particularly in relation to the Palestinian struggle and the broader Middle East.

Said’s Early Works and Influences

In his first book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966), Said explored Joseph Conrad’s fear of personal disintegration through his repeated re-writing of the past. Said was influenced by Conrad’s works, which often depicted settings in East Asia and Africa, reflecting the political realities of colonialism and the notion of “civilizing” native populations. Said’s second book, Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975), examined the distinction between “origin,” which is divine, and “beginning,” which is a human creation.

Said’s most famous work, Orientalism (1978), brought him international acclaim. Around the same time, he was also working on The Question of Palestine (1979), in which he addressed the violent conflicts in the Middle East and their impact on both the occupiers and the occupied. Said’s writings often critiqued the exploitation of third-world countries by superpowers, particularly in the context of the Palestinian struggle. In After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives (1986), with photographs by Jean Mohr, Said depicted the lives and identities of Palestinians living in exile and diaspora.

In Culture and Imperialism (1993), Said continued his critique of Western imperialism and its efforts to colonize less powerful nations. His memoir, Out of Place (1999), recounted his personal experiences of displacement and the loss of his homeland, resonating with others who had faced similar struggles.

Academically, Said is known for his historical criticism, which situates Western literature within the context of empire. His work transcends disciplinary boundaries, often venturing into fields outside his professional expertise. Beyond academia, Said was an active advocate for Palestine, using his writings to defend his oppressed people against colonial powers.

Orientalism (1978)

The term “Orientalism” refers to the study of Asia and its people by European and American scholars. In postcolonial and Asian American studies, it primarily denotes the West’s construction of the East during colonial expansion, highlighting its role in the imperialist project. According to Said, Orientalism has multiple, interconnected meanings. It can refer to an academic field: “Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient—whether an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist—is an Orientalist, and what they do is Orientalism.” It also refers to a “style of thought” based on an ontological and epistemological distinction between the Orient and the Occident. Finally, Orientalism is an institutional practice, a “Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.”

Said argues that Orientalism is both a discourse and a corporate institution for the production and domination of the Orient. Its roots are deeply historical, though Said focuses on the modern period, particularly the late 18th century, when power and knowledge became intertwined. Said’s analysis of Orientalism was influenced by Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis (1942), which examined Western culture’s representation of reality through literary practices. Auerbach’s work, written during his exile in Turkey, sought to understand the development of Western culture through textual analysis.

Said also drew on Raymond Schwab’s The Oriental Renaissance (1950) and Edgar Quinet’s Le Genie des religions (1832), which explored Western attitudes toward India and the relationship between the Orient and the West. These works highlighted how the West viewed the Orient as inferior.

Michel Foucault’s theories on discourse and the relationship between knowledge and power were also crucial to Said’s work. Said used Foucault’s concept of discourse to analyze Orientalism as a systematic discipline through which European culture managed and produced the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period. Said argued that the West studied the Orient’s culture and way of life through the translation of its literature, furthering its dominance.

Said focused primarily on British and French Orientalism, and later American Orientalism. He viewed Orientalism as a cultural enterprise encompassing diverse subjects such as the spice trade, Biblical texts, and Oriental experts. The West’s interest in the Orient was not merely about physical conquest but also about understanding its cultural construction. Said believed that the Orient had a rich history and tradition of ideas, metaphors, and terminology that the West needed to comprehend to establish hegemony.

Strategic Location and Strategic Formation

Said identified two angles through which authority could be studied: strategic location and strategic formation. Strategic location refers to the author’s position in a text concerning the Oriental material they write about. Strategic formation analyzes the relationship between texts and how groups of texts acquire mass, density, and referential power within a culture. Said emphasized the importance of an author’s narrative voice, tone, structure, and rhetorical strategies in creating authority over the Orient.

Said was particularly interested in the exteriority of texts—their surface rather than hidden meanings. He argued that Orientalist texts were intended to represent the Orient as incapable of representing itself due to a lack of high culture and knowledge. This representation reinforced the idea that the Orient needed the West to speak for it.

The Scope of Orientalism

In “The Scope of Orientalism,” Said opened with a speech by Arthur James Balfour in the House of Commons on June 13, 1910, regarding the problems in Egypt. Balfour argued that the issues in Egypt were fundamentally different from those in Britain, justifying British colonization by portraying Egyptians as oppressed and in need of Western intervention. Balfour claimed that the British, with their superior knowledge of Egyptian civilization, were better equipped to rule Egypt than the Egyptians themselves.

Similarly, Said discussed Lord Cromer, the British governor of Egypt, who argued that the Oriental mind was fundamentally irrational and unchanging. Cromer believed that the West’s knowledge and civilization were necessary to reform the Orient, which he viewed as lacking in ethics and morals.

Said also referenced Caussin de Perceval, an Orientalist who argued that Arabs were united by Mohammed, who used Islam as a political tool rather than a spiritual one. Caussin portrayed Islam as more political than spiritual, stripping Mohammed of his religious significance. In contrast, Thomas Carlyle criticized Mohammed as a trickster who deluded his people to gain power, dismissing the Quran as a confused and wearisome text.

Conclusion

Edward Said’s Orientalism remains a seminal work in postcolonial studies, challenging the West’s construction of the East and exposing the power dynamics inherent in Orientalist discourse. Said’s critique of Western imperialism and his defense of the Palestinian cause have left a lasting impact on both academic and political discourse. His work continues to inspire scholars and activists to question and resist the structures of power and domination that shape our understanding of the world.