The postcolonial theory and the literature of decolonization lutfi hamadi, phd. Oct 26, 2004 orientalism and the jews tauber institute for the study of european jewry ivan davidson kalmar, derek penslar on. In his introduction to the term orientalism, edward said. They had to formulate the middle east and asia to allow this study to take place. Said in his seminal book by the same name, orientalism has become one of the founding principles of. Orientalism and the jews tauber institute for the study of. A unique, indispensable book, the ultimate work on the subject, the orientalists. Iwamura employs edward saids concept of orientalism to construct a paradigm of virtual orientalism anchored in a critical racialization perspective. This is because they have no history or intellectual freedom from their colonial masters.
Edward saids 1978 book, orientalism, has probably been one of the most. Some of the most popular and frequently discussed titles in movie history are imbued with orientalism, the politicallycharged way in which western artists have represented gender, race, and ethnicity in the cultures of north africa and asia. Japanese studies, orientalism, intercultural studies. And, given the fact that hollywood often serves as a reflection of contemporary culture, this is a major problem. Providing an historical and geographical context for postcolonial theory a thesis presented to the graduate school of clemson university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts history by samuel thadeus scurry may 2010 accepted by. The orientalist is, in the end, the story of one mans accidental obsessive search for another mans story. Review the study guide and choose which exercises you will use with your students. Orientalism and the binary of fact and fiction in memoirs of. For the purposes of this paper, i will be using edward saids pioneering definition of orientalism. Orientalism is a theory put forward by the late edward said.
However, both the movie and the book raised a lot of controversy regarding the misrepresentation of japan and japanese customs through an obvious. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism undoubtedly ranks as one of the most renowned, and controversial, works of modern social science. Ouidyane elouardaoui synopsis this essay looks at the way a number of post911 hollywood films attempts to offer an image more reflective of the real arabs. Orientalism is not to mock east asian cultures, although it can certainly contribute to or culminate in the mockery of east asian cultures. Said notes that there has been a fair amount of interchange over the last few centuries over these two theoretical fields of coming to terms with the orient. Said s definition of the term orientalism has multiple facets. Hollywood, with john wayne starring in the role as harris. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passage in criticism. A critique of edward saids orientalism and daniel martin variscos reading orientalism. Midnight express as a product of hollywood orientalism iscap.
Memoirs of a geisha, published in 1997, and its movie adaptation, released in 2005. Of the many criticisms leveled at edward saids seminal work, orientalism. In academic orientalism, anyone who teaches, writes about or researches the orient is an orientalist, and what he or she does is orientalism. In his highly celebrated but also provoking book orientalism 2, edward said 1935 2003 embarks on describing a long european tradition of coming to terms with the orient that is based on the orients special place in european western experience. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the orientalist view in hollywood and the filmmaking. Orientalism in film or animation cultural studies essay. Occidentalism refers to and identifies representations of the western world the occident in two ways. As warraqs title indicates, his book rests on the premise that orientalism, and the intellectual legacy and tendencies it has bolstered, represents an attack on the west. Jul 15, 2000 the book next traces the popularization of orientalism in the decorative arts including a few treasures from olana, churchs moorishstyle home on the hudson, on broadway, and in hollywood, as well as through advertising that linked consumer products with visual suggestions of exotic sexuality and through cultural objects, such as the. Although nowadays the concept of orientalism has become so commonplace that many of the arguments given in this book seems outdated, it is to be emphasized that maybe it was exactly due to original research carried out in this book many years ago that orientalism became widely known. Orientalism, western scholarly discipline of the 18th and 19th centuries that encompassed the study of the languages, literatures, religions, philosophies, histories, art, and laws of asian societies, especially ancient ones. In this unique and generous insti tution, it was my good fortune not only to have benefitted agreeably. There are different ways to study different things and this book looks at the approaches that have been taken to the study of orientalism. The late edward saids orientalism argued that the word oriental is a fundamentally pejorative term for certain parts of the nonwestern world, not only indicating that they are inferior but also justifying western colonization or domination of them.
Orientalism knowledge is not innocent it is always operated by power this foucauldian notion informs edward saids book orientalism 1978 3. In his book orientalism, edward said addresses the idea that the way the orient has and still is pictured and understood by the west is not only diminishing but closer to mythology than reality. On an historical level, the books argues that american mass awareness of asian religions coincides with the advent of visuallyoriented media magazines, television, and film and examines how technological transformations ushered in a new form of orientalism virtual orientalism. Male bonding, hollywood orientalism, and the repression of the feminine in kubricks full metal jacket susan white 12. Unlike the americans, the french and the british less so the germans, russians. In his book orientalism he seeks to present and interpret it as a historical phenomenon, a way of thought, a contemporary problem, and a material reality p. Said in his book seeks to show that this luridness is a centuriesold part of the western cultural scene, and is not a mere reflection of the arabisraeli conflict or the oil crisis. There have now been more than 150 films that present turkey and the turks as imagined in the west. While in baku present day capital of azerbaijan writing a story about the revival of the oil business, tom reiss is handed a copy of ali and nino by a person called kurban said, and told that this book is both the azeri national novel and the best introduction to the city he could. Edward said in his 1978 book of the same title as subtle and persistent eurocentric prejudice against araboislamic peoples and their culture in the course of academic study. In edward saids seminal book orientalism, there are various points about. In part, this complexity results from his historical insight into the.
Fleming1 east asia and its diasporas are typically depicted in american films as overwhelmingly labyrinthine worlds densely layered with complex enigmatic signs. Orientalism kindle edition by said, edward w politics. As this is the current state of affairs, said wonders how the project of this book might serve to challenge the forces of orientalism. I had a dog, at least i had him for a few days until he ran away, and an old dodge and a finnish woman who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove. Jane naomi iwamura addresses these questions in virtual orientalism. Early representations of arabs and muslims in hollywood productions were largely drawn from the literary works of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early orientalism the history of western notions about islam is of obvious scholarly as well as popular interest today.
The setting that the film makers establish for the film is a key instrument in the depiction of these cultures and societies. Download occidentalism and orientalism pdf books pdfbooks this dissertation seeks to explore, from both the critiques of the chinese communist party, and of literary critics living and working in the west, the ways in which the play itself was overshadowed by the ideological din of these two waves of critical response p. I reach a provisional conclusion that, to anyone whose conception of east indian dancing is based upon hollywoods orientalism, authentic work goes unrecognized and is often viewed as strange because it does not confirm to the images of hindu routines, oriental or exotic dance, or american show dancing. Hollywood has no idea what to do with asian people. Film studies, edward said, orientalism, occidentalism, representation. Orientalism is a term applied to the orient as discovered, observed and described, in a sense, invented by europe and the west. Orientalism and the binary of fact and fiction in memoirs of a geisha. Said believes that academically orientalism still lives on as congresses are held and books are written with the. It remains particularly pertinent and relevant in our contemporary context, not just because of the wave of postcolonial and poststructuralist literature which. Saids 1979 book orientalism aimed to expose and explain his theory of the phenomenon of western dominance over the east. It has been influential in about half a dozen established disciplines, especially literary studies english, comparative literature, history, anthropology, sociology, area studies especially middle east studies, and comparative religion.
Here i come to the third meaning of orientalism, which is something more historically and materially defined than either of the other two. One of the most important themes of this book has to do with how to approach an area chosen for study. Said, in which the author developed the idea of orientalism to define the wests historically patronizing representations of the eastthe societies and peoples who inhabit the places of asia, north africa, and the middle east. A few years later, a movie was made about the book with rob marshall as the director, with a brilliant cast of famous actors and actresses, both in hollywood and in asia. Orientalism was defined by the late columbia university prof. List of books and articles about orientalism online. Furthermore, while orientalism had operated previously as part of a conservative agenda, it is now propelled by a western liberal impetus to involve oneself in every aspect of the nonwestern world. I have been reading about orientalism for a number of years, but most of this book was written during 19751976, which i spent as a fellow at the center for advanced study in the behavioral sciences, stanford. Pdf the concept of orientalism has been widely dealt with in the humanities and social sciences. Images of asianamerican women in multicultural advertising minjeong kim and angie y. Orientalism is a constant one, and since the late eighteenth century there has been a considerable, quite disciplinedperhaps even regulatedtraffic between the two. It is the belief of western superiority over other societies, especially. They, in turn, were inspired by depictions found in elizabethan manuscripts, which took their cue from the middle ages. John leonard in the new york times his most important book, orientalism established a new benchmark for discussion of the wests skewed view of the arab and islamic world.
The picture itself speaks volumes, calling to mind all the lurid distortions of the muslim east offered up by hollywood and herblock. More than three decades after its first publication, edward saids groundbreaking. Studies university, who introduced me to edward saids theory orientalism, and. This article reconsiders the cultural constructs of multicultural advertisement strategies in the. Download occidentalism and orientalism pdf books pdfbooks. Edward saids seminal work, orientalism, published in 1978, is a discourse analysis and a genealogy of orientalism. This book investigates christian images of the muslim middle east, focusing on the period from the renaissance to the enlightenment, when the nature of divine as well as human power was under particularly intense debate in the. Essays utilize such areas as cultural studies and genre criticism, and among the films discussed are lawrence of arabia, indochine and the sheik. The fantasy of an inscrutable east, she argues, is not merely a side note to film history, but rather a kernel of otherness that has shaped hollywood cinema at its core.
Hollywood movies often gives the image of the chinese is a kind of uncomfortable feeling, and some even have been distorted or be smeared. It has become a jingoistic byword in the third world. At the turn of the twentyfirst century, in spite of growing globalization there remains in the world a split between the west and the rest. Chung past research has analyzed the gendered constructs of american consumption practices that underlie marketed images in the print media. But of course, for that the western journalist would have to read local papers and a book or two or 10, take the time to talk to locals and. This book is an excellent practice of textual analysis. Orientalism and the binary of fact and fiction in memoirs. Films like the sheik george melford, 1921 and the son of the sheik george fitzmaurice, 1926 present the arab as. The book orientalism took no account of pulp fiction, doggerel, cinema, theater, music hall, popular singsongs, pantomime, postcards, science fiction, and cartoons. Orientalism in american popular culture scholarlycommons. West as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience. Research the term orientalism and write a short summary of what you find. Orientalism is more of an indicator of the power the europeans holds over the orient. In the book that this film was based on, he examined more than 1,000 films ranging from the earliest days of film production.
Said then proposes a third definition of orientalism, using an analysis. Said, parr professor of english and comparative literature at columbia university. In this highlyacclaimed work, edward said surveys the history and nature of western attitudes towards the east, considering orientalism as a powerful european ideological creation a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the otherness of. Said was born in 1935 in jerusalem, raised in jerusalem and cairo, and educated in the united states, where he attended princeton b. Through close readings of the lady from shanghai, chinatown, blade runner, lost in translation, and other films, she develops a theory of the shanghai gesture, a trope. It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man. In his groundbreaking book, the father of poco theory shows us how everyone is complicit in the making of orientalism a system that caricaturizes the orient aka, the middle east for the economic and political benefit of western powers. He presented the important hypothesis in his book, orientalism, that without examining orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which european culture was able to manageand even producethe orient said, 1978. Essential, and still eyeopening, orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Mulan, aladdin and the jungle book written by charlotteolsen589 orientalism is defined by said 2001, p. Orientalism, while also extending its breadth to all that is not considered west the middle east, india, russia, etc. Such scholarship also inspired broader intellectual and artistic circles. This anthology addresses orientalism in film from precinema fascinations with egyptian culture through the whole new world of aladdin.
She defines virtual orientalism as a type of cultural. It is associated with field of post colonialism and the study of the cultures and identities of the orient and eastern civilisations by the west. Early and contemporary constructions of islam and the. Popular culture, orientalism, and edward said middle. Primetime televisions tour of duty daniel miller 10. British library cataloguing in publication data said, edward w.
Pdf midnight express as a product of hollywood orientalism. Orientalism still big onscreen if you think orientalism is a thing of the past, think again. Writer mia mask argues that some of this years hit movies suggest that. Edward said illustrated that a facet of orientalism exists in when the creation or representation of exotic, other lands does not imbue aspects of the society to be portrayed. In lost in translation, homay king argues hollywood has.
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