Said, Edward, Orientalism
Said, Edward, Orientalism. Pantheon, 1978.
“geographical sectors as ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’ are manmade. Therefore as much as the West itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery and vocablurary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West.” (5)
“The Orient was Orientalized not only because it was discovered to be ‘Oriental’ in all those ways considered common place by an average nineteenth-century European, but also because it – that is, submitted to being – Oriental.” (5-6)
“I myself believe that Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic power over the Orient than it is as a veridic discourse about the Orient” (6)
“Culture, of course, is to be found operating within civil society, where the influence of ideas, of institutions, and of other persons works not through domination but by what Gramsci calls consent.” (7)
“certain cultural forms predominate over others, just as certain ideas are more influential than others; the form of this cultural leadership is what Gramsci has identified as ” (7)
“Orientalism is never far from what Deny Hay has called the idea of Europe. A collective notion identifying ‘us’ Europeans as against all ‘those’ non-Europeans, and indeed it can be argued that the major component in European culture is precisely what made that culture hegemonic both in and outside Europe: the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures.” (7)
