colonialism - orientalist summary Flashcards
intro - what is the orient
- ‘the orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilisations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’ (1)
- contrast of the Orient has allowed for a better definition of the west – definition in terms of contrasts
- orientalism = formed of many interdependent aspects
- focus of much academic study
- ‘orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the occident’ (2)
intro - Orient and power struggles
- orientalism is linked to Western domination
o produced by imperial societies
o becomes political and rooted in power-dynamics - linked with british and French history
o beginning of 19th cent – end of WW2, FR and GB dominated Orient - the orient is not essentially an idea
- ideas, cultures etc. need to be studied alongside their origins/power configurations
occident and orient = relationship of power
intro – 3 aspects of contemporary reality
- distinction between pure and political knowledge
- the methodological question
- the personal dimension
intro – 3 aspects of contemporary reality: distinction between pure and political knowledge
- contemporary west emphasises academic, non-political knowledge
- however, cannot separate writing/scholar from their context – this will inevitably reflect personal concerns
- in viewing political knowledge as less valuable, we lose the ability to recognise how knowledge produces political circumstance
- ‘political importance comes from the closeness of a field to ascertainable sources of power in political society’ (10)
♣ can look at orientalism as an ‘exchange between authors and greater political concerns shaped by the three great empires – British, French, American – in whose intellectual and imaginative territory the writing was produced’ (15)
♣ how did other schools of thought impact the development of orientalism?? Must look at politics and culture – context is key to study
intro – 3 aspects of contemporary reality: methodological question
- not only need to identify the beginning of orientalism but also look at context that shaped its development
- starting point = british, French and American involvement with orient
- biblical scholarship = important part of Orientalism
- sense of Western = intellectual dominance over Orient
- main methodological devices
o strategic location – describing the author’s position in a text
o strategic formation = analysis of relationship between texts
emphasis on exteriority of texts – look at them from outside
intro – 3 aspects of contemporary reality: personal dimension
- writer = oriental, grew up in Palestine and Egypt. Yet had western education
- Islamic orient = focus
- 1950s, east = dangerous
- things that have contributed to politicisation of Islam
o anti-Islamic prejudice of west as seen in history of orientalism
o struggle between arabs and Israeli Zionism. Effect on American jews and liberal culture
o absence of cultural position that identifies with arabs/islam - the fact that the Middle East is now an oil-power etc. means that it is less likely for us to achieve this conversation
- cannot fully identify yourself with arabs if you are in US. Deemed flawed in some way
P1, CH1 – balfour
- Arthur james balfour, june 13 1910
o Attempted to justify british occupation of Egypt based on ‘our’ knowledge of the country rather than military power
o Authority suggests a denial of other countries’ autonomy. British superiority is taken for granted
o Says the west shows a superior capacity for self-governing
o Suggests Egypt requires British occupation
P1, CH1 – we vs. other
- ‘we’ used when describing West carries sense of royalty and power
- cannot speak for orientals as they are ‘other’ – yet still prevent them from having a voice. Assume their feelings and that they are not capable of making rational decisions
- Europe has always been in a position of power – in knowledge and military etc.
- Relationship between east and west figured in terms of child/parent, clear hierarchy of power
P1, CH1 – history of domination
- 1815-1914, EU direct colonial dominion expanded from 35 to 85% of world’s surface
- ‘it was in the Near Orient, the lands of the Arab Near-East, where Islam was supposed to define cultural and racial characteristics, that the British and the French encountered eachother and ‘the Orient’ with the greatest intensity’ (41)
- development of Orientalism made the distinction between occident and orient more intense
P1, CH1 – literature about orient
- orient renaissance
- Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798 = turning point
- ‘for with Napoleon’s occupation of Egypt processes were set in motion between East and West that still dominate our contemporary cultural and political perspectives’ (42)
P1, CH1 – orientalism as a body of knowledge in the west
- scholars were limited re. what they could say
- ‘orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar and the strange’ (43)
- ‘for that is the main intellectual issue raised by Orientalism. Can one divide human reality, as indeed human reality seems to be genuinely divided, into clearly different cultures, histories, traditions, societies, even races and survive the consequences humanly?’ (45)
- view of West as rational etc. vs. violent East
P1, CH2 – academic aspect of orientalism
- orientalism is often viewed as an academic discipline, increases in scope over time
- until mid-18th century, orientalists = biblical scholars
- late 18th century, Anquetil Duperron and Sir William Jones discovered value of Sanskrit and Avestan
- the orient became known in the West ‘as its great complementary opposite since antiquity’ (58)
o bible and rise of Xianity
o islam as a redoubtable conquering Eastern movement
P1, CH2 – islam in the middle ages as radially new
- was deemed fraudulent version of Xianity
- West favours the familiar
- 632 Mohammed dies
- islam militarily grows – Persia, Syria, Egypt, turkey then North Africa fell to Muslim armies
- 8th and 19th cent = Spain, Sicily and parts of France
- 13th = India, Indonesia and China
- ‘and to this extraordinary assault Europe could respond with very little except fear and a kind of awe’ (59)
- 17th cent – Ottoman Empire = constant threat to Xian civilisation
o ‘Like Walter Scott’s Saracens, the European representation of the Muslim, Ottoman or Arab was always a way of controlling the redoubtable Orient’ (60)
♣ in controlling presentation of orientalists, westerners can mute their danger
P1, CH2 – reception of Islam in West
- Westerners misunderstand Islam – they assume that M is to Muslims what JC is to Xians
- Presentation of Islam was orientated towards Xians – Islam is painted in reference to Xianity. Cannot have independent worth
- Daniel, Islam and the West, 259
o ‘the invariable tendency to neglect what the Qu’ran meant, or what Muslims thought it meant…. Necessarily implies that Qu’ranic and other Islamic doctrine was presented in a form that would convince Christians’ - 1450-60
o John of Segovia, Nicholas of Cusa, Jean Germain and Aeneas Silvius (Pius II) had a ‘conference’ to discuss what to do with Islam - Southern highlights how Western views of Islam evolved towards greater ignorance rather than knowledge (Western views of Islam, 99-101)
- M was viewed as ‘the disseminator of false Revelation, he became as well the epitome of lechery…’ (62)
- Narcissistic Western ideas have not gone, but their sources have simply changed
P1, CH2 – 3-way relationship between different aspects of orientalism
- Orient, orientalist, western consumer of ‘orientalism’
- Orient = punished for being outside Western boundaries
- ‘The orient is thus orientalised, a process that not only marks the orient as the province of the orientalist but also forces the uninitiated Western reader to accept Orientalist codifications as the true orient’ (67)
o orientalist no longer has possession over truth - the west receive oriental territories as they should be – the east always shared a likeness with the west
P1, CH2 – dante inferno
- Maometto – Mohammed is only above the falsifiers and treacherous in the circles of hell. Fate = brutal
- Deems Muslims ignorant of Xianity
- Empirical fact does not matter for Dante – it is his poetic grasp of Islam. Muhammed and co. become characters on a stage
P1, CH2 – orient as outside civilisation
- 17th cent Islamic invasions – center of EU culture moved away from Mediterranean
- ‘the orient, when it was not merely a place in which one traded, was culturally, intellectually, spiritually outside Europe and European civilisation’ (71)
- ‘we need not look for correspondence between the language used to depict the orient and the orient itself, not so much because the language is inaccurate but because it is not even trying to be accurate. What it is trying to do, as Dante tried to do in the Inferno, is at one and the same time to characterise the Orient as alien and to incorporate it schematically on a theatrical stage whose audience, manager, and actors are for Europe’
- Muhammed is and always will be an imposter
P1, CH3 – what is orientalism
- ‘orientalism is the discipline by which the orient was (and is) approached systematically, as a topic of learning, discovery and practice’ (73)
P1, CH3 – islam as threatening
- geographically and culturally close to Islam
- military success
- ‘from the end of 7th cent until the battle of Lepanto in 1571, Islam in either its Arab, Ottoman or North African and Spanish form dominated or effectively threatened European Christianity’ (74)
P1, CH3 – Napoleon 3 intentions with Egypt
- 1798, Napoleon invasion of Egypt = crucial for history of orientalism
o N’s 3 intentions
♣ Turned to east after victory at Treaty of Campo Formio
♣ Viewed Alexander’s Orient and Egypt particularly glorious
♣ N knew Egypt well
♣ ‘for Napoleon, Egypt was a project that acquired reality in his mind, and later in his preparations for its conquest, through experiences that belong to the realm of ideas and myths culled from texts, not empirical reality’ (80)
o ‘napoleon used Egyptian enmity towards the Mamelukes and appeals to the revolutionary idea of equal opportunity for all to wage a uniquely benign and selective war against Islam’ (82)
o ‘when it seemed obvious to Napoleon that his force was too small to impose itself on the Egyptians, he then tried to make the local imams, cadis, muftis and ulemas interpret the Koran in favour of the Grande Armée’ - after Napoleon, orientalism became a language of creation
P1, CH4 – orientalism and writing
- for Napoleon and de Lesseps, ‘everything they knew… about the orient came from books written in the tradition of Orientalism’ (94)
- western reading vs. Oriental silence
- can begin to think of orientalism as a ‘kind of Western projection onto and will to govern over the Orient’ (95)
- during 19th/20th century ‘orientalism had accomplished its self-metamorphosis from a scholarly discourse to an imperial institution’ (95)
P1, CH4 – accomplishments of orientalism
- produced scholars
- increased number of taught languages
- provided the Orient with interested EU students who wanted to study Sanskrit etc.
- ‘yet…. Orientalism overrode the Orient’ (96)
- orient = object of study. No voice in this study
P1, CH4 – GB and Xian interests (Church missionary society)
- ‘with regard to Islam and the Islamic territories, Britain felt that it had legitimate interests, as a Christian power, to safeguard’ (100)
o societies such as the Church Missionary Society (1799) joined the quest to expand EU
♣ worked to ‘abolish the slave trade’
♣ wanted to tell people about Jesus
♣ social reform
P1, CH4 – louis massignon
- Islam = ‘systematic rejection of the Christian incarnation, and its greatest hero was not Mohammed or Averroes but all-Hallaj, a Muslim saint who was crucified by the orthodox Muslims for having dared to personalise Islam’ (104) see 1922 la passion de…
- Aka Islam’s only value is the Christ-like figure of all-Hallaj