Orientalism by Edward Said

Hello readers,
                          This blog is a part of my classroom activity in which students have to write on the interview of Edward Said about Orientalism. Here is the link of the given task by teacher, to see click here

Video recording of the Interview of Edward Said on 'Orientalism

Transcript of the interview of Edward said on Orientalism

(Click here to read transcript)

Our task is to find out 5 concept of orientalism

What is Orientalism:

                                 As per the Said's words. Orientalism is not an imagination it is material thing and genuine theory. Orientalism is revolutionized the study of middle East and also useful to studies post-colonialism and other discipline like History, Anthropology, Political science and Cultural studies.

To know strange people or region:

                                                       Orientalism also very useful to know about orient people and region or to study about Eastern Asia. We have a preconceived notion of what kind of people live there, what they believe, how they act and also we understand the concept of colored peoples. Here, Said is Talking about the Eastern world like Palestine, Egypt and their condition after colonialism. We can see the condition of Palestinian  after the occupation of Jew people, they immigrate from their homeland to other countries because of Forcefully occupation of Israel. So, we can understand the concept of "Imaginary Homeland" through Palestinian. 

Stereotype: Said talked in this interview about the stereotype of Eastern countries. He said that Western world especially America always see the Eastern world as terrorist countries, their media also portraying Eastern people as barbaric in their T.V program and news. So, this kind of stereotypical perspective is very dangerous for the Eastern countries.

Different views of  Imperialism: In the interview, Said also differentiate the Imperialists like France, America and Europe and he said that French imperialism was very different than Europe and America. Further he said that French did not invaded like Spaniard invaded the new world, looking for a loot. But Nepolian invaded Egypt for the survey of Egypt while Europe invaded the new world looking for loot and also America looted many Easter countries because of the oil through the arm force.

Palestine Issue: Said talked about the issue of Palestine that what is the condition of the people there, they have not their mother land because of the forcefully occupation by Israel. From 1948 to present time Palestinian are suffering a lot for the peace and their homeland but Western countries do not take any kind of action on this issue. We also can say that why Europe and America built a new state for Jew people surrounding Islamic countries, if they have love for Jew people then why they vanished jew from Europe. So, Said explained this issue through cultural, religious and political views.

Contrapuntal line: It is very good view to look any kind of issue, language, Religion, Literature In contrapuntal line, we can say every thing has binary opposition. So, Said said that we have to look from both side we can not judge anything from one side like blind people portrayed elephant from one angle.