Transcript concept orientalism area studies

ORIENTALISM,
OCCIDENTALISM
AND
AREA STUDIES
Mirko Tasic, Natacha, Hyoung Yeo Lynn,
Yoon Hyung Won, Kwon Hye Na
Outline
• INTRODUCTION--Brief overview on the definition of
terminologies
• ORIENTALISM & AREA STUDIES
• EDWARD SAID: What he was and his legacy!
• UNDERSTANDING ORIENTALISM AND AREA STUDIES
• HINDUISM (Mauritius as an Example)
• PARTIAL CONCLUSION- SYNOPSIS
• ORIENTALISM – ONTOLOGICAL CONCEPT
• ORIENTALSIM AND METHODOLOGY
– THE WEST AND THE REST – HISTORY vs. GEOGRAPHY
– DEFINING RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
– DISCOURSE AND POWER
• SLAVIC ORIENTALISM
• ORIENTALISM AND LOCAL
• CONCLUSION
• Q&A
The Backdrop!!!
After 9/11
• The extreme change of relation between West vs. nonWest and its categories (good/evil, civilized/uncivilized,
etc.) after 9/11.
• September 2001-Silvio Berlusconi`s proclamation of
Western superiority.
• 2002`s State of the Union Address and naked
aggression against the “un-civilized” world and
definition of the “axis of evil.”
Introduction
-Definitions of key terminologies• ORIENTALISM:
o Orientalism – a Latin word Oriens :
– The rising of the sun implies “the East” in a relative sense.
– In opposition to the term “Occident” that implies the West–
the sunset.
– Europe – denotes 'The West' or the Occidental.
– And the rest -- Eastern extremity 'The East' or ‘The Oriental.’
– The study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures,
languages and peoples by Western (Britain, France, USA)
scholars.
NB: Orientalism has a negative connotations just
like the term “black America” does in the USA.
Orientalism and Area Studies
-History of Orientalism• Just like ambiguity that revolves around
the definition and “raison d’ệtre” of Area
Studies, it is ambiguous to be precise
about the origin and of the distinction
between the “West” and the “East.”
Understanding Orientalism and Area Studies
-The Iceberg Approach• Area studies should be
studied in relation with:
– Orientalism in relation
of being heir to this
discipline.
– Heritage and similarities
between Area Studies
and Orintalism under
geopolitics of the post –
World War II era.
– Distinctive and
disruptive places within
organization of social
studies
• Edward Wadie Saïd
(1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003)
o A Palestinian-American literary theorist and
outspoken Palestinian activist. He was
University Professor of English and Comparative
Literature at Columbia University, and is
regarded as a founding figure in postcolonial
theory.
• Referred to himself as a "Christian
wrapped in a Muslim culture." According
to Saïd's autobiographical memoir, Out of
Place (article "Between Worlds"), Saïd
lived "between worlds" in both Egypt and
Israel and the U.S.A
Hinduism
• There are perhaps two powerful images in
contemporary Western characterizations of
Eastern religiosity:
1. First is the continually enduring notion of the
‘Mystical East' - a powerful image precisely
because for some it represents what is most
disturbing and outdated about Eastern culture,
2. Second, it represents the magic, the mystery
and the sense of the spiritual which they
perceive to be lacking in modern Western
culture.
Hinduism
-Mauritius•
•
•
•
Way of living.
Rituals / Ceremonials – Vedas.
Knowledge – Upanishads.
Over 50% are Hindus – came to work as
indentured servants of the Europeans
settlers.
• In spite of the colonization of the French
and the British—Hinduism has been
nurtured
Statue of Lord Shiva
• This Lord Shiva’s Statue
is the biggest Lord Shiva
Statue in the world
made at this level until
now.
• The statue is 108 feet
(~33 M). It was
inaugurated in 2007;
was done during the
“Maha Shivratri” period
of 2008.
SYNOPSIS
-In a nutshellCONCEPT
ORIGIN
ORIENTALISM
AREA
STUDIES
European
Enterprise
American
Enterprise
APPROACH *Deductive
**Inductive
Common
Ground
Both are products of the
“unequal” power relations
between the “West” and the
“non-West".
SYNOPSIS
• Deductive – the belief that sacred
languages & religion would give key to
understanding the region under
“scrutiny.”
• Inductive – the belief that the individual
contributions of sociologists,
economists, political scientists,
historians and anthropologists, when
brought together, would enable the
understanding of contemporary
developments in a given country.
Orientalism
-Ontological Concept• Orient was almost European invention.
– In that sense Orient is integral part of European material
culture and civilization.
– Ancient Greece, Arabs and Aristotle, Baudelaire, Modern Art,
etc.
• “Orient” & Hegemony .
– Two hegemonies – two different concepts of the “orient.”
• Middle East / Far East.
• Orienatlism is based upon an ontological and epistemological
distinction between “the Orient“ and “the Occident.”
– Different ontological and epistemological connotations of &
correlations between Europe and its Orient / America and its
Orient.
– Two different ontological traditions. Europe – Metaphysical and
XX century positivists’ tradition; America – Pragmatism.
• European culture gained strength and identity by setting
itself off against Orient.
• Even notions Orient/Occident are apprehended through
Hegelian Master/Slave dialectical inter-construction
(European connotation).
• Ontological question: Is the Orient essentially only an idea,
or a creation with corresponding really – the “real Orient?”
– The relation between Orient and Occident is a relation of
power, of domination, of varying degrees of complex
hegemony.
– Structure of Orientalism – structure of lies or of myths.
• Orientalism – an accepted grid for filtering through the
Orient into Western consciousness.
– Us vs. They; Mi vs. Oni
• Western Hegemony dominate frame through which E. Said
is construction the notion “Orient.”
– Ideas about Oriental governed less by empirical reality and
more by various doctrines of Western superiority.
• Is there a distinction between pure and political
knowledge?
– True knowledge should be fundamentally non-political
(Natural vs. Social Sciences).
• Historical horizon of “the Orient.”
– Reverse engineering; notion Orient could be
retrogradely defined – since the time of Homer.
• Regarding development of the European states “the
Orient” was determinate more culturally rather than
politically.
• In post-Enlightenment period it reflected
distribution of geopolitical awareness into many
domains of intellectual world.
• Because Orientalism is cultural and political fact, it
does not exist in some archival vacuum.
Orienatilsm
-Methodology• Orientalism and ontology:
– Origin, Conception, Transformation, Modulations, etc.
– E. Said: Orientalism a willed human work.
• Each humanistic investigation must formulate the nature of
that connection in the specific context of the study, the
subject matter, and its historical circumstances.
• The question of “Orientalism” closely related to the
question of Social Sciences’ methodology.
• Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: “Merger of horizons.”
• E. Said’s methodological starting point: The British,
French, and American experience of the Orient
taken as a unit; what made that experience possible
by way of historical and intellectual background;
what is the quality and character of the experience.
• Western intellectual world is not coherent.
– Through perspective of Orient it looks very coherent; within,
there is a big gap between European and American intellectual
tradition, especially in the area of IR.
– The Copenhagen School – Barry Buzan.
• E. Said’s point of view: Britain and France were the pioneer
nations in the Orient and Oriental studies, but these
vanguard positions were held by virtue of the two greatest
colonial networks in pre-twentieth century history; the
American Oriental position since WWII has fit quite selfconsciously in the place excavated by the two earlier
European powers.
– British and French Orienatalism – colonial minded imperialism,
reproduced American Orientalism after WWII.
• Entire domain of IR theories: Realism, Marxism, Hegemony, Neoliberalism, etc. /
– Constructivism.
EDWARD SAID
The West and the Rest
-History vs. Geography• Where is “the West?”
– ‘Western’ and ‘West’ have different connotation.
• West – geographical, racial, hegemonic, historical.
• Western – cultural, social, religious, contemporary.
• S. Hall: Our ideas of ‘East’ and ‘West’ have never been free of
myth and fantasy, and even to this day they are not primarily
ideas about place and geography.
– E. Siad’s Orientalism and hegemony – more geographically
determined (at least ‘West’).
• S. Hall’s hypothesis is that the ‘West’ is a historical not a
geographical construction. By ‘western’ we mean the type of
society.
– As I mention above ‘West’ and ‘Western’ are two terms that
have different connotations, therefore they don’t represent
one, single notion.
– Puzzle is how to connect or merge those two notions.
Defining Research Objectives
• ‘Western’ and ‘West’ have different connotation.
• West – geographical, racial, hegemonic, historical.
• Western – cultural, social, religious, contemporary.
• Oriental is differently connected or corralled to ‘West’/’Western.’
– If we define the scope of each of those two terms,
‘Orientalism’/’Orient’ could become more transparent and explicit.
• In the same manner:
– Orient: geographical, historical, epistemological, objective, etc.;
Open multidimensional notion, stretched between theory and
practice.
– Orientalism: theoretical construction, closed within the boundaries
of theoretical world. However it has bigger ontological weight or
primacy.
• We are dealing with four and not two notions.
• Orient: Alexander the Great, Crusades, Mongols and Tatars,
Marco Polo, Ottomans, etc.
– Everything goes under ‘Orient.’
Discourse and Power
• S. Hall: Discourse – a particular way of representing the ‘West.’
– Discourse is production of knowledge through language. But itself, it
is produced by practice – social practice.
• M. Foucault: Discourse of the West about the Rest was deeply
implicated in practice – how the West behave towards the Rest.
– A discourse draws on elements in other discourses, binding them into
its own network of meaning.
• Discourse and Epistemology: The very language we use is finally
deciding what is true, and what is false
– The description becomes true: ex.– Palestinian terrorist/freedom
fighters.
• One of the reasons of European coherency toward “Orient” in
defining its common identity was, beside other things, common
‘court’ language .
– Inner states royal marriages.
• M. Foucault: Not only discourse always implicated in power;
discourse is one of the ‘systems’ through which power circulates.
– Deep and intimate relationship between discourse, knowledge and
power.
– Structuralism.
• Philosophy of Language and Theory of the
Meaning could be used as Methodological
guidelines.
• Problem with the critique of “Orientalsim”
– It’s done within the frame of ‘Western’ lingotheoretical frame. Ontologically has the same value
and inference as the object of the critique.
– It is a maze – “’Western intellectual trap.”
– Hegel in his History of Philosophy, which is the
cumulus of the evolution of entire ‘Western’
intellectual world doesn’t recognize any EasternOriental philosophy as a momentum of selfcognition of the Spirit.
• Discourse – system of representation.
• It creates stereotyping – one-sided
description which results from the collapsing
of complex differences into a simple
cardboard cut-out.
• Stereotyping creates dualism:
– Mono- essence.
– Splitting/dualism – ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Essence is
not ethical category, rather it’s ontological.
• ‘Western’ discourse deconstruction
– Postmodernist approach.
Slavic Orintalism
• Russian “Oriental Despotism.”
– Nordic royal elite, Slavic people and
imported religion, Mongolian way of
governance.
• Clean & Kinship.
– Norse Saga, Byzantium, Mongols,
Peter the Great, St. Petersburg,
French language, Kaliningrad.
– Eurovision only since 1994
• Today this contest is more ‘European’
for Russia than for Europe.
• Balkan’s Orientalism
– Mostly cultural and historical context.
– Eastern part of Greece is less ‘Oriental’ than
Bosnia
• Geographical context doesn’t work for Balkan.
– Not ever religious or historical context is valid.
Croatians, historically shared Austro-Hungarian
heritage and Catholic religion, in some aspects for
‘Western’ world are Oriental as much as Serbians,
Muslim Bosnians or Albanians.
– Bosnian Muslims or Albanians are not for Middle
East. They are Serbs that accepted Islam during
Turkish occupation. However, even for Serbians
they are Oriental, but for some Europeans they
could be considered as Occidental because of
some racial (blond hair and eyes) prejudice.
• Balkan is probably the most interesting case of
Oriental within Occidental
‘Oriental’ and ‘Local’
• ‘West’ – Europe
– Orientalism and Historical context.
– Arabs and Europe
– Invasion of Huns
• Bulgarian, Alans, Sarmatians, Huns,
etc. came from geographically
‘Oriental’ region.
– Most of European languages belong
to the group of Indo-European
languages which has origin in
Sanskrit.
– Hungary, Finland, Turkey speak
languages that belong to the group
of Ural-Altaic languages (all ‘Far East’
countries belongs to this group).
– North and ‘Oriental’ South
•
South Spain, South Portugal, Malta,
Balkan, etc.
– Invasion of Huns
Alan and Vandal migrations 4th–5th centuries. Red:
migrations; Orange: military expeditions; Yellow:
settlement areas.
Conclusion
• Orienatlism – based upon an
ontological and
epistemological distinction.
• Orient/Occident – mutually
constitutive, Master/Slave.
• “Orient” & Hegemony.
• Orientalism is cultural and
political fact, not only
geographical.
• Orientalism and Methodology.
– Defining research objectives –
West, Western, Orient,
Orientalism.
– Discourse and Power.
– Hermeneutics or Postmodern
deconstruction of the Western
discourse.
• Slavic Orientalism – Oriental
within Occidental.
• Europe/Occidental – Local and
Oriental.
Q&A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Is Said’s statement redefining orientalism as “a deeply held Western
prejudice against the East, serving imperialist causes” still valid today. If
so, how so?
What are the proofs (if proofs there are), that the controversy over
orientalism continues?
Is there really a single ancient religion designated by the catch-all term
'Hinduism' or is the term merely a fairly recent social construction of
Western origin?
Oriental/Occidental – Is it possible to define each of them
independently?
How to overcome or connect geographically different orientalisms that
are emerging in global multidimensional conceptual sphere?
Which term has bigger negative connotation and why?
Who is more oriental (Sarajevo or Vladivostok) or occidental (Seville or
Ljubljana) and why?
What will be advantage or disadvantage for Area Studies if suddenly
western theoretical establishment decide to censure usage of the term
orientalism because of globalization and disappearing boundaries
among nations?