The documentary on Orientalism, talks about how most westerners has developed a preconceived notion of what kind of people live, what they believe and how they act in the eastern part of the world. The documentary focuses on the work of writer Edward Said and his ideas on Orientalism. According to Said the west and Europe look through a lens that distorts the actually reality of the eastern people. He labels this lens through which the westerners view as Orientalism. This documentary on orientalism also suggests that the knowledge acquired by the west is not objective, but it actually serves a certain interest. Edward Said in the documentary argues that the Europeans divided the world into two parts; the east and the west or the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was totally an artificial boundary; and it was laid on the basis of the concept of them and us or theirs and ours. The Europeans used orientalism to define themselves. Some particular attributes were associated with the orientals, and whatever the orientals weren’t the occidents were. The Europeans defined themselves as the superior race compared to the orientals; and they justified their colonization by this concept. They said that it was their duty towards the world to civilize the uncivilized world. Said lays out an argumentation that consists of attempting to show that people of the West hold an inherent and profoundly diminutive and racist view of the Middle East. The views that Westerners have is constructed around Western fantasies of exotic locals and fanatic Arabian people, than with the realities that exist within the Middle East.
After watching the documentary one can infer that the reason as to why the west and Europe had been portraying east in such a derogatory manner is because they feared something. Was it the power or was its threatening religious beliefs of the orients that led Europe and the west to demonize them? To come to think of it, Europeans had an incentive to invade the orients and rule over them. And since they didn’t want their people to revolt in the favor of the orients the European powers used their historians and artist to depict the orients in a form that would lead their people to perceive orients as backward and unethical. In conclusion Orientalism is a cultural viewpoint and belief system that needs to be challenged and needs to be balanced out with a true perception of the Middle East. The west and Europe need to educated about the true face of the orient and need to be shown thier true identity.
Response to “Edaward Said on Orientalism”
Pol 201
G00039786
Azka Vicar Mir
