A Season of Migration to the North and Orientalism

1. How does political policy shape conception of the “other”? How can literature revise misconceptions? A Season of Migration to the North and Orientalism

2. Orientalism • Edward Said—1978 • One of the most important theories tied to Post-Colonialism

3. Quick Think • Write down your thoughts for each of the following topics: • Facts about the “Oriental” world • Stereotypes about the “Oriental” world • Things you want to know about the “Oriental” • Now, discuss with your small group and create one master list for submission.

4. Key Terms • The Orient: Signifies a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, consciousness, and empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien (“Other”) to the West. • Orientalism: “A manner of regularized writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient.” It is the image of the “Orient” expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship. • Latent Orientalism: The unconscious, untouchable certainty about what the Orient is. It’s basic content is static and unanimous. The Orient is seen as separate, eccentric, backward, silently different, sensual, and passive. It has a tendency towards despotism and away from progress. It displays feminine penetrability and supine malleability. Its progress and value are judged in terms of, and in comparison to, the West, so it is always the Other, the conquerable, and the inferior. • Manifest Orientalism: What is spoken and acted upon. It includes information and changes in knowledge about the Orient as well as policy decisions founded in Orientalist thinking. It is the expression in words and actions of Latent Orientalism.

5. The Oriental • Theperson represented by Orientalist thinking. • A single image, a sweeping generalization, a stereotype that crosses countless cultural and national boundaries. • The man is depicted as feminine, weak, yet strangely dangerous because he poses a threat to white, Western women. • The woman is eager to be dominated and strikingly exotic.

6. Origins of Orientalism • Idea was formulated originally to facilitate Western conquests—colonialism!!! • First Orientalists: 19th century scholars translated “Oriental” writings into English to aid in conquests. • “By knowing the Orient, the West came to OWN it.” • Orient=object/passive; West=scholars/active • One vast, multi-faceted region becomes a single “Orient” that is a complete social construct of the West. It exists solely for and its identity is defined entirely by Orientalist scholars. • Depicted in sexual terms: the weak, feminine Orient awaits the dominance of the West. • How does such a discourse facilitate and perpetuate colonialism?

7. Contemporary Orientalism • Focuses on the “Arab” • Jot down what you think of when you first hear the following words: • Arab • Muslim • Historian • Through contemporary Orientalism, “Arab” is now widely constructed as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest, and prototypical. • Our contemporary crisis is that such ideas are backed by political policy and powerful Western institutions, and thus they are unquestionably accepted as “truth” and thereby remain unchallenged by the masses.

8. “One would find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda—which is what it is, of course—were it not accompanied by sermons on the objectivity, the fairness, the impartiality of a real historian, the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that Orientalists…writing about Muslims are, by definition, by training, by the mere fact of their Westernness. This is the culmination of Orientalism as a dogma that not only degrades its subject matter but also blinds its practitioners.”—Edward Said

9. SO WHAT?!? • A rejection of Orientalism… • Equals a rejection of racial and religious prejudices. • “Eliminates greed as a primary motivating factor in intellectual pursuit.” • Erases the line between the West and “The Other.” • How do we fix this? • “Narrative” instead of “Vision” • Complex history allows for dynamic human experience • Does not deny differences, but evaluates them in a critical, objective manner • Focus on smaller, more culturally consistent regions • Give the “Oriental” a voice rather than studying from afar

10. Homework • Compose a personal response to what you have just learned about Orientalism. • Your response must be one page handwritten OR at least 250 words typed. • You can discuss any of the following: • General thoughts • Identification of your own personal Orientalist beliefs • Observations of Orientalism in popular culture • What we can do to reverse Orientalist ideology • How you see Orientalism in the novel