35 pages 1 hour read

Edward Said

Orientalism

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1978

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Themes

Binary Opposition (Orient/Occident)

Said expresses the relationship between the Orient and the Occident as one of binary opposition. The concept of binary opposition originated with Ferdinand de Saussure, a seminal figure in structuralist theory, who defined it as two ideas that are dependent on one another for definition, but which are theoretically opposed. This dependency and opposition articulates the historical and theoretical bind in the relationship between the Orient (the East) and the Occident (the West). Said argues that this bind is maintained by the dominant Occidental powers who have always relied on the Orient to fortify its own identity.

By creating and maintaining a binary opposition between the Orient and the Occident, the West is able to define itself through its distinctions from the values of the East. In a 1972 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, U.S. government official Harold W. Glidden penned an essay where he described Arabs in the Middle East as “characterized by anxiety expressed in generalized suspicion and distrust, which has been labelled free-floating hostility” (49). In this instance, the Orient is positioned as perpetually hostile, mistrustful, and against peace. This is juxtaposed against the West, which values peace. The West is considered, “rational, peaceful, liberal, logical, capable of holding real values” (49), whereas the Arab individual possesses the opposite traits.