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Orientalism

(Redirected from Orientalist)

Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, generally by Westerners. Although this term had become archaic and rare by the late twentieth century, Edward Said redefined this term in his groundbreaking work Orientalism (1979) to emphasize the relationship of power and knowledge in scholarly and popular thinking, in particular, regarding Europeans and how they saw the Arab world. "Oriental", a politically loaded (and often derogatory) term, referred to Western notions of a subjugated colonial "other".

Taking a comparative and historical literary review of European scholars and writers looking at, thinking about, talking about, and writing about the peoples of the Middle East, he sought to lay bare the relations of power between the colonizer and the colonized in those texts. While his work owes much (as Said himself made clear) to that of Michel Foucault, Said's work has had far-reaching implications beyond the Middle East, to India, China, and post-colonial studies generally.

Many scholars now use Said's work to undermine long-held, often taken-for-granted European ideological biases regarding non-Europeans in scholarly thought. Some post-colonial scholars would even say that the West's idea of itself was constructed largely by saying what others were not. If "Europe" evolved out of "Christendom" as the "not-Byzantium," early modern Europe in the late 16th century (see Battle of Lepanto) certainly defined itself as the "not-Turkey."

Throughout history, western culture built up an exotic stereotype of "the Orient"—seductive women (i.e. the femme fatale) and dangerous men living in a static society with a glorious but long-gone past. Many critical theorists regard Orientalism as part of a larger, ideological colonialism justified by the concept of the "white man's burden".

Although the concept of orientalism originated as a critique of Western views of the Orient, it has also been used to critique 20th century Chinese views of both its own history and of minority cultures within China. For example, Lionel Jensen argues that modern Chinese narratives of Confucianism and of Chinese history in general have incorporated many orientalist assumptions.

Contents
1 "Orientalism" in reference to art and culture
2 The decline of scholarly Oriental Studies and transition to Asian studies (in North America)
3 See also
4 External Links

"Orientalism" in reference to art and culture

The word Orientalism can also refer to Western appropriations of oriental themes and imagery in art, architecture, literature, and other manifestations of popular or high culture. This has taken many forms.

"Chinoiserie" is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, ca 1740 - 1770. Earliest hints of Chinoiserie appear, in the early 17th century, in the nations with active East India Companies, Holland and England, then by mid-17th century, Portugal. Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine blue-and-white Ming decoration from the early 17th century, and early ceramic wares at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain naturally imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and tea wares. But in the true Chinoiserie décor fairyland, mandarins lived in fanciful mountainous landscapes with cobweb bridges, carried flower parasols, lolled in flimsy bamboo pavilions haunted by dragons and phoenixes, while monkeys swung from scrolling borders. Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Lisbon. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca 1753 - 70, but sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid- Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream "chinoiserie." Chinoiserie media included "japanned" ware imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has a magnificent garden pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers. Though the rise of a more serious approach in Neoclassicism from the 1770s onward tended to squelch such Oriental folly, at the height of Regency "Grecian" furnishings, the Prince Regent came down with a case of Brighton Pavilion, and Chamberlain's Worcester china manufactory imitated gaudy "Imari" wares. Later exoticisms added imaginary Turkish themes, where a diwan became a sofa. (See Sezincote , Gloucestershire.)

After 1860, Japoneries, sparked by the arrival of Japanese woodblock prints, created a parallel universe, which peaked in brilliant paintings by James MacNeill Whistler and his "Peacock Room " that transcended the genre. As late as 1920 ladies of the mandarin classes of London and Boston quite unselfconsciously wore kimono at breakfast, as a kind of imperial negligée. After World War I, Chinoiserie collapsed in a welter of Kewpie dolls and exotic ashtrays, and, after 1945, Hawaiian shirts.

Orientalism covered a vague and exotic domain that was mostly "East of Suez," where gritty realities did not intrude. But ancient Carthage (Tunisia) formed the background for Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô and North Africa, from moment of the French occupation of Algiers in 1830, provided orientalizing odalisque themes, from high-minded Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Jean-Léon Gerome , to the arty soft-core cryptopornography in harem settings of 1860 - 1890.

Compare elements of (in historical order):

Chinoiserie crashed with the realities of serious East-West confrontations of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (which was about sub-Saharan Africa but nevertheless gives insight into the relationship between European and non-European cultures) leading to E. M. Forster's A Passage to India.

Interestingly, an Asian parallel to this cultural Orientalism began developing during the late 20th century, when many Western cultural themes and images began appearing in Asian art and culture, especially in Japan. Engrish words and phrases are prominent in Japanese advertising and popular culture, and many Japanese animes are written around characters, settings, themes, and mythological figures derived from various Western cultural traditions.

The decline of scholarly Oriental Studies and transition to Asian studies (in North America)

In most universities in North America, Oriental Studies has now been replaced by Asian Studies localized to specific regions, such as, Near Eastern Studies, South Asian studies, and Far East or East Asian Studies. This reflects the fact that the Orient is not a single, monolithic region but rather a broad area encompassing multiple civilizations. A growing number of professional scholars and students of East Asian Studies are Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Korean Americans.

Perhaps the debate between philology and regional studies may not seem compatible but with time, categories such as Asian American will be more elastic and dynamic, also accounting for the remapped Asian identities that have rooted in Latin America. And so, the previous paragraph remains moot as misrepresentations abound and the inability to articulate the importance for Orientalism as a polemic and legitimate academic exercise remains. Area studies that incorporate not only philological pursuits but identity politics may account for the hestitation to use the term "Oriental".

See also

External Links

Last updated: 11-10-2004 16:11:47