Wednesday, March 9, 2016

The Other: Said's Orientalism

From my understanding, Edward Said's theory of Orientalism is that the East (Middle East, Asia, etc) will never truly be able to be part of Europe. According to Said, Eastern people are described as the "sly, devious, mystical Oriental," by Europeans. Said also claims that because of Europe's lack of cultural understanding, the East is frequently romanticized into something it isn't and even goes as far to dehumanize Eastern people. In the eyes of the West, the East is a very primitive and barbaric place. In essence, Orientalism is a way for Europeans to practice cultural discrimination against the East.

I think Orientalism is simply a way for Western culture to create unfair stereotypes about the Eastern culture and its people. I'm not sure if it purely racism, but it feels pretty close to it. I believe that we still do have an Orientalist mindset. One example of Orientalism can be seen in Disney's 1992 hit Aladdin (especially in the song where Aladdin is trying to escape from the guards in the marketplace and at the start of Arabian Nights at the beginning of the movie). In modern pop culture, the East is constantly portrayed as the exotic, foreign, bad guy. I believe that Orientalism is a very strong part of Western culture because while there is this admiration for Eastern culture (and a capitalization on it), it will always be "the other."

I found this article/talk on NPR about Orientalism in Eat, Pray, Love, if anyone is interested: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129254808
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 9, 2016 at 7:38 AM

    I agree, Western culture often uses Orientalism as a way to "understand" Eastern culture. It ends up making the East seem exotic and dangerous, forcing it to be the "other."

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  2. AnonymousMarch 9, 2016 at 11:21 AM

    The article you attached to the bottom of your post was a great modern connection. Thanks for sharing it!

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  3. AnonymousMarch 9, 2016 at 1:52 PM

    I think Aladdin was a great connection to the stereotypes Said discussed. Aladdin seemed sly when he was trying to escape from the guards, and the movie definitely made the East seem exotic. I also loved the article. It´s interesting to see how orientalism manifests itself in different types of movies, from animated children´s movies to romantic comedies.

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  4. AnonymousMarch 9, 2016 at 6:25 PM

    Interesting read. I hadn't even thought about Aladdin when reading the article, so thanks for pointing that connection out.

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