On Orientalism: Edward Said

On Orientalism: Edward Said:

• Orientalism revolutionized study of the middle East and helped to create and shape entire new field of study such as post-colonial theory as well influencing disciplines as diverse as English, history and cultural study.

• He calls this lens through which we view that  part of the world Orientalism. A framework that we use to understand the unfamiliar and the strange to make the peoples of the middle east appears different and threatening. 

• The central argument of Orientalism is that the way that we acquire this knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflect certain interest, that is highly motivated.

• Edward Said that Orientalism is a discourse which is a regulated system of producing knowledge within certain constraint where by certain rule have to be observed.

• There is certain sense in which in not really mounting a serious critique of it the Arab have participated and continue to allow themselves to be represented as orientals in this Orientalist way.