Summary of Edward W. Said's Orientalism

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The choice of Oriental was canonical. It designated Asia or the East, geographically, morally, and culturally. It was used by Chaucer and Mandeville, by Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, and Byron.

#2 The first theme that dominates Balfour’s speech is knowledge. He believes that by studying and understanding a civilization from its origins to its decline, you can gain authority over it and ultimately dominate it.

#3 Balfour’s speech is significant for the way in which he plays the part of and represents a variety of characters. He speaks for the English, the West, and the relatively small corps of colonial officials in Egypt.

#4 The most important thing about the theory was that it worked staggeringly well. The argument was clear, precise, and easy to grasp. There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied and their blood and treasure put at the disposal of one or another Western power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669365204

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Insights on Edward W. Said's Orientalism

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The choice of Oriental was canonical. It designated Asia or the East, geographically, morally, and culturally. It was used by Chaucer and Mandeville, by Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, and Byron.

#2

The first theme that dominates Balfour’s speech is knowledge. He believes that by studying and understanding a civilization from its origins to its decline, you can gain authority over it and ultimately dominate it.

#3

Balfour’s speech is significant for the way in which he plays the part of and represents a variety of characters. He speaks for the English, the West, and the relatively small corps of colonial officials in Egypt.

#4

The most important thing about the theory was that it worked staggeringly well. The argument was clear, precise, and easy to grasp. There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied and their blood and treasure put at the disposal of one or another Western power.

#5

The commercial spirit should be under some control, which means that in dealing with Indians, Egyptians, or Zulus, the first question is to consider what these people think is best for their own interests, although this is a point that deserves serious consideration.

#6

The main characteristic of the Oriental mind is its lack of accuracy. The European is a close reasoner, and his statements of fact are devoid of any ambiguity. The Oriental, on the other hand, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most slipshod description.

#7

Orientalism was a rationalization of colonial rule, and it was used to justify the relationship between Europe and the Orient. The West was always in a position of strength, and the Orient was always inferior.

#8

Orientalism is the study of the Orient that places things Oriental in class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgment, discipline, or governing. It is the assumption that the Orient is inferior to the West, and needs to be corrected by the West.

#9

Orientalism is a set of constraints upon and limitations of thought, and it has influenced both Europeans and Orientals. It was developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it was based on the ineradicable distinction between Western superiority and Oriental inferiority.

#10

Orientalism is a third form in which the West has viewed the Orient. It was initially a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar and the strange.

#11

Orientalism is the process by which the West feeds off of and profits from the East. It is a form of knowledge that is regulated first by the local concerns of a specialist, then by the general concerns of a social system of authority.

#12

Orientalism is a form of thought that divides the world into large general divisions, and it is used to push the importance of the distinction between some men and some other men, usually towards not especially admirable ends.

#13

The Newtonian revolution has not taken place in the developing world, and thus they retain the essentially pre-Newtonian view that the real world is completely internal to the observer. Consequently, empirical reality has a different significance for