Orientalism (book)

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Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward Said, in which he establishes the term "Orientalism" as a critical concept to describe the Western world's commonly contemptuous depiction and portrayal of the Eastern world (or, the Orient). Societies and peoples of the Orient are those who inhabit regions throughout Asia and North Africa. Said argues that Orientalism, in the sense of Western scholarship about the Eastern world, is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies that produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power. According to Said, in the Middle East, the social, economic, and cultural practices of the ruling Arab elites indicate they are imperial satraps who have internalized a romanticized version of Arab culture created by French and British (and later, American) Orientalists. Examples used in the book include critical analyses of the colonial literature of Gustave Flaubert. Through the critical application of post-structuralism in its scholarship, Orientalism influenced the development of literary theory, cultural criticism, and the field of Middle Eastern studies, especially with regard to how academics practice their intellectual inquiries when examining, describing, and explaining the Middle East. Moreover, the scope of Said's scholarship established Orientalism as a foundational text in the field of post-colonial studies by denoting and examining the connotations of Orientalism, and the history of a given country's post-colonial period. As a public intellectual, Said debated historians and scholars of area studies, notably historian Bernard Lewis, who described the thesis of Orientalism as "anti-Western" in nature. For subsequent editions of Orientalism, Said wrote an Afterword (1995) and a Preface (2003) addressing discussions of the book as cultural criticism.