Orientalism

Said describes the relationship between the Occident and Orient as “a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of complex hegemony” (5). While Orientalist works may present the idea of a passive imagination about the Orient, Said believes that Western ideas, when formalized through academic study, has political ramifications. Thus, Orientalism and the relationship between the Occident and Orient belongs to a complicated network of power.

Drawing from Antonio Gramsci’s idea of hegemony, Said argues that this network of power constitutes not only Western literature but also other modes of knowledge production verified through academic institutions and other governmental structures. For Gramsci, hegemony speaks to the ways power is distributed and managed through cultural forms as well as more overt modes, such as militaristic force. Said applies the concept of hegemony to Orientalism to speak to how cultural production is tied to the creation of public policy regarding the Orient. Writing about the Orient is no innocent act but is rather part of shaping the power relations between the West and the East, fortifying the former through subjugation of the latter.