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SCIENCE POLITIQUE
3ème année

Postcolonial approach - Edward Said

Critical approaches

Definition

Orientalism is understood in three distinct ways :
- An academic label? - A style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between « the Orient » and (most of the time) « the Occident »? - A Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient?The orientalist discourse is thus a Western production that is projected upon the East.

The racial violence experienced by Fanon has two dimensions :

  • first a subject (Fanon) is perceived as an object : reification?
  • Second this object is externally characterized : essentialization?

Analysis of this violence

=> In his book Orientalism (1978), Edward Said analyses the orientalist discourse.


Said focuses on the internal validity of orientalism, it’s not a reflexion about the correspondence between orientalism and « real » orient. In this concept there are two aspects for Said :

  • Epistemological dimension (science, knowledge, clichés)
  • Question of power

-> The Orient is an object of science for the West due to their relation of domination.

Said wants to focus on artistic and scientific discourses by knowing and highlighting the fact that none discourse is politically neutral even if the liberal consensus wanted to let think that.


After Napoléon’s expedition in Egypt (1798), the Orient is not distant anymore. Orientalism which was a fascination for the description of the Orient, thus becomes a creation.






A retenir :

Said shows that the content of this orientalist discourse has not changed from the end of the 18th to the 1870s : The Orient is : Feminine, Weak, Passive, Irrational, Often in a mob. In sum, this orientalist discourse is essentialising - we have to notice that this discourse is also an implicit discourse about the Occident. Occident is also essentialised. ?This occident is thus described : Masculine, Strong, Active, Rational/scientific, More individualized.
SCIENCE POLITIQUE
3ème année

Postcolonial approach - Edward Said

Critical approaches

Definition

Orientalism is understood in three distinct ways :
- An academic label? - A style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between « the Orient » and (most of the time) « the Occident »? - A Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient?The orientalist discourse is thus a Western production that is projected upon the East.

The racial violence experienced by Fanon has two dimensions :

  • first a subject (Fanon) is perceived as an object : reification?
  • Second this object is externally characterized : essentialization?

Analysis of this violence

=> In his book Orientalism (1978), Edward Said analyses the orientalist discourse.


Said focuses on the internal validity of orientalism, it’s not a reflexion about the correspondence between orientalism and « real » orient. In this concept there are two aspects for Said :

  • Epistemological dimension (science, knowledge, clichés)
  • Question of power

-> The Orient is an object of science for the West due to their relation of domination.

Said wants to focus on artistic and scientific discourses by knowing and highlighting the fact that none discourse is politically neutral even if the liberal consensus wanted to let think that.


After Napoléon’s expedition in Egypt (1798), the Orient is not distant anymore. Orientalism which was a fascination for the description of the Orient, thus becomes a creation.






A retenir :

Said shows that the content of this orientalist discourse has not changed from the end of the 18th to the 1870s : The Orient is : Feminine, Weak, Passive, Irrational, Often in a mob. In sum, this orientalist discourse is essentialising - we have to notice that this discourse is also an implicit discourse about the Occident. Occident is also essentialised. ?This occident is thus described : Masculine, Strong, Active, Rational/scientific, More individualized.
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