35 pages 1 hour read

Edward Said

Orientalism

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1978

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Introduction

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

In Edward Said’s introduction to Orientalism, he begins by defining Orientalism as the intellectual and political dominance of Western countries (the Occident) over non-Western countries (the Orient). Throughout the book, he makes three crucial arguments about how this power differential emerged. Firstly, he argues that while Americans and Europeans have different notions of what constitutes the Orient, he is interested in the combined U.S. and European intellectual and political investment in the Middle East and Asia. While U.S. and European investments vary between one another, Said proposes looking at Western patterns and attitudes towards the Middle East and Asia over time to better understand the impact of Orientalism. He argues that to gain a comprehensive history of Orientalist activity, one must view not only Western material interest in the Orient but also Western academic and literary imagination of the East. 

Secondly, Said continues to argue that the juxtaposition of the Occident against the Orient creates a “relationship of power […] of varying degrees of complex hegemony” (5). This power emerges not only through domination of ideas but also through the production of policy and colonial administration. He gives the example of author Benjamin Disraeli’s novel, Tancred, where the author describes the East as a “career” (5) for Westerners.