Book SummaryOrientalism, by Edward Said

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Orientalism

Orientalism is the framework through which Western writers, policymakers, and the general public have interpreted and defined the Islamic societies of the Middle East as “the Orient.” The central premise of Orientalism is that the Orient is a fundamentally different, exotic, dangerous, unchanging, and “other” place. This concept of a foreign and strange East forms a set of cultural, political, religious, and linguistic contrasts which, in turn, has enabled the “West” to think of itself as a distinct—and superior—entity.

Orientalism served as a key ideological lynchpin of European colonialism; fundamentally, it is a discourse of dominance, superiority, and control that continues to have profound implications on today’s geopolitical landscape.

The Structure and Core Ideas of Orientalism

We first need to define and flesh out Orientalism as a concept by exploring:

• Its function as a creator of knowledge about the Middle East
• How the Orientalist framework positioned the East as an entity that was incapable of acting upon its own agency or initiative—and therefore required European guidance and intervention
• How Orientalism promoted the idea of the peoples and societies of the Middle East as being unchanged since ancient times, contributing to the concept of an essential “Oriental mind”

Knowledge as Power

Beginning in the early 18th century, Orientalism began to emerge and diversify as an academic discipline. Its experts and practitioners positioned themselves as the authoritative “interpreters” of the Orient, both for Western audiences and, as the Age of Imperialism dawned, for the people of the region themselves.

Rather than seeing the Orient as a complex and evolving society of people with their own political and economic agency, Orientalists viewed it as a fascinating object to be studied, described, represented, and, ultimately, mastered by Western powers.

Thus, the knowledge produced and disseminated by the Orientalist tradition was a source of tremendous power for the West in its efforts to subjugate and subordinate the East.

The Myth of the Oriental Mind

A hallmark of Orientalist thought was the idea that the Orient was a monolithic mass whose people, culture, and society had remained unchanged since the days of the ancient civilizations.

The idea that the Orient was static and unmoved by the forces of modernity directly fed the myth of the supposed “Oriental mind.” Because “Orientals” had remained stuck in a stage of intellectual, cultural, religious, and political development essentially unchanged since the days of the pharaohs, Orientalists felt confident in making sweeping pronouncements about how modern-day peoples of the region thought and acted. There was no need to speak to contemporary people living in Egypt, Iran, or Arabia, because all one ever needed to know about them could be found in the treasure of ancient artifacts and manuscripts that Orientalist anthropologists, historians, and philologists eagerly devoured.

Thus, there was an eternal and fixed “Oriental mind.” And, in the Orientalist interpretation, this “Oriental mind” was incapable of the kind of objectivity and rationality that would enable the people of the region to develop enlightened European institutions like science, representative democracy, capitalism, and the rule of law. Instead, it was and would forever be rooted in the subjective and transactional mental structures of the ancient world. Therefore, as a people, “Orientals” were vengeful, emotional, dishonest, and violently obsessed with shame and honor.

The Passive Orient

In Orientalist writings, the Orient is forever in the passive position. It can never act of its own accord; it can only be acted upon. This could be seen in its (perceived) failure to keep up with European political, economic, and technological advances. Even when Orientalists did encounter unmistakable evidence of political agency and will among people of the region (as with, for example, the Egyptian nationalist movement, which gained momentum in the late 19th century) they could comfortably write it off as an anomaly.

The Problem of Textualism

In its methodology, Orientalism was highly textual, relying heavily upon ancient writings and inscriptions as the source of all knowledge about the Orient. This approach contributed to the dehumanizing tone and attitudes that pervaded so much of Orientalist discourse, treating human beings—indeed, even enormously complex human societies—as reducible to what texts had to say about them. For the Orientalist, the story of the East was fundamentally one of texts—not people.

This methodology had real-world consequences, as Orientalists sought to apply ancient texts to address the problems of the modern Orient, fully consistent with their belief in an unchanging East—and in their unique role as its interpreters.

The Roots of Orientalism

This European idea of a strange, distant, and static Orient had existed in Western literature and historical writing long before the development of Orientalism as a formal academic discipline. We'll explore these deep roots of Orientalist thought by looking at:

• The writing and experiences of the ancient Greeks
• How Islam came to represent an existential threat in the mind of Christian Europe during the Middle Ages
• How these ideas found their modern political expression in the age of European imperialism, which began its modern phase in 1798 with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt

The Ancient Greeks and the East

Ancient Greek city-states like Athens and Sparta explicitly defined themselves by their contrasts with and opposition to the despotic “Asiatic” Persian Empire.

This tradition of “othering” the Orient goes all the way back to the very earliest works of Western literature. In The Iliad, the foundational text of Western literature, Homer presents the antagonistic and...

Orientalism Summary Introduction

Edward Said’s Orientalism is a study of the scholarly, intellectual, political, and ideological phenomenon known as Orientalism. Orientalism is the framework through which Western writers, policymakers, and the general public have interpreted and defined “the Orient” (which, in this summary, will primarily refer to the Islamic societies of the Middle East, though these terms also encompass East Asia in some writings).

Said’s key insight is that Orientalism does not reflect objective truth. Instead, it is an invention of the Western mind. The central premise of Orientalism is that the Orient is a fundamentally different, exotic, dangerous, unchanging, and “other” place. This concept of a foreign and strange East forms a set of cultural, political, religious, and linguistic contrasts which, in turn, has enabled the “West” to think of itself as a distinct—and superior—entity.

Said (1935-2003) had the intellectual framework of Orientalism impressed upon him from birth. As an Arab Palestinian educated in Palestine and Egypt (both of which were British colonies at the time), who then went on to an academic career in literature and postcolonial studies in the United...

Orientalism Summary Chapter 1: The Structure and Core Ideas of Orientalism

As we mentioned in the Introduction, Orientalism is the intellectual framework by which European (and later, American) scholars, diplomats, imperial administrators, and policymakers created the idea of an alien, oppositional, and unchanging “East.” In this chapter, we’ll define and flesh out Orientalism as a concept by exploring:

• Orientalism’s function as a creator of knowledge about the Middle East
• How Orientalist modes of thought helped to justify and power Western imperial ambitions in the region
• How the Orientalist framework positioned the East as an entity that was incapable of acting upon its own agency or initiative—and therefore required European guidance and intervention
• How Orientalism promoted the idea of the peoples and societies of the Middle East as being unchanged since ancient times, contributing to the concept of an essential “Oriental Mind”

Knowledge as Power

The knowledge produced and disseminated by the Orientalist tradition was a source of tremendous power for the West in its efforts to subjugate and subordinate the East.

Beginning in the early 18th century, Orientalism began to emerge and diversify as an academic discipline,...

Shortform Exercise: Challenge Your Preconceptions

Think about how your ideas about other cultures may be rooted in false assumptions.

What false or overly simplistic preconceived ideas have you had about cultures, religions, and/or ethnicities other than your own?

Orientalism Summary Chapter 2.1: The Roots of Orientalism

In the previous chapter, we defined Orientalism and outlined its core ideological assumptions about the East—and how those ideas influenced the exercise of power and control in the Orient by Europeans.

But the European idea of a strange, distant, and static Orient wasn’t simply invented by 18th- and 19th-century colonial powers to justify their imperial project. In fact, these concepts have long existed in Western literature and historical writing. In this chapter, we’ll explore these deep roots of Orientalist thought by looking at:

• The origins of Western apprehension regarding the Orient in the writing and experiences of the ancient Greeks
• How opposition to and contrast with “the East” helped to define what we now know as “Western civilization”
• How Islam came to represent an existential threat in the mind of Christian Europe during the Middle Ages
• How these ideas found their ultimate political expression in the age of European imperialism, which began its modern phase in 1798 with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt

The Ancient Greeks and the East

**Ancient Greek city-states like Athens and Sparta explicitly defined themselves by their contrasts with and...

Orientalism Summary Chapter 2.2: Interpretations of the Orient

In the last chapter, we explored how Orientalist attitudes and assumptions had deep roots in European history and the experiences of Westerners with the peoples of the East.

In this chapter, we’re going to carry our analysis forward into the 19th century Age of Imperialism, to see how Orientalists wrote about, acted upon, and interpreted the Orient.

Specifically, we’ll explore:

• How Orientalism positioned itself as the sole gatekeeper to Western knowledge about the Orient
• How the field of philology came to occupy a dominant position within Orientalist discourse
• How Orientalists came to see their role as the interpreters of Eastern culture for both Western audiences and for the people of the East themselves
• How Orientalist tropes shaped the writing and attitudes of Europeans who visited the Orient during this period

Orientalism as Gatekeeper

The work of scholars reflects the economic, social, and historical circumstances in which it was produced.

Orientalism was and remains a powerful framework, which shaped (and constrained) the way in which Western scholars and observers wrote about and experienced the Orient. As an ideology and as an academic...

Shortform Exercise: Question Your Objectivity

Explore how what you accept as fact may actually be heavily influenced by your own cultural biases.

In a few sentences, give an example of a contemporary issue (perhaps the Israel-Palestine conflict or the 2003 US invasion of Iraq) where your ideas of what’s “objective” or “true” might be influenced by your culture and values—and why someone with a different set of cultural values might see things differently.

Orientalism Summary Chapter 3.1: Orientalism and Power

So far, we’ve explored the main intellectual framework of Orientalism and how that framework influenced the ways in which Europeans experienced the East—and, crucially, how they interpreted the East and defined its essential “otherness” with regard to the West.

But Orientalism was more than just scholarship. Ideas influence actions, and Europe was highly active in the Orient throughout the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century. In this chapter, we will explore the relationship between Orientalism as an intellectual discipline and the exercise of European imperial power in the Middle East. Specifically, we’ll examine:

• How Orientalism both reflected and reinforced a fundamental power relationship between the West and the East
• How imperialist nations like Great Britain and France marshaled the academic knowledge of the Orientalists in the service of empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• How Orientalist thinking framed empire-building not merely as an opportunity for Europe—but as necessary for preserving the legacy of Western civilization itself
• How the notion of the “white man’s burden” followed from these attitudes, convincing...

Orientalism Summary Chapter 3.2: Orientalism in the Modern Age

In the last chapter, we saw how Orientalist scholarship and writing animated, motivated, and rationalized European imperialism by reinforcing the fundamental power imbalance between East and West. In this chapter, we will see how Orientalism reacted to historical developments in the 20th and 21st centuries, when the peoples and nations of the Orient began resisting European imperialism, forging their own political identity, and competing with the West on more equal terms. Specifically, we’ll look at:

• How Orientalism remained rooted in its reductive and essentialist discourse, even as other academic disciplines reacted to a changing world
• How Orientalist scholars opposed political developments like Arab nationalism, seeing them as deviations or perversions from the essential, eternal Oriental state of mind, which was to be passive, compliant, and accept domination by others
• How the United States emerged as the preeminent Western power after World War Two and made its own contributions to Orientalism
• How 20th-century political flashpoints like the oil crisis of the early 1970s and the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict that shaped Western popular images of the...

Orientalism Summary Conclusion

Our analysis of Western representations (and, under the influence of Orientalism, misrepresentations) of the East raises a key question: How do you represent a culture?

Perhaps more fundamentally, is there even such a thing as a “separate” culture or culture zone, or are divisions of the world into neat categories like “West” and “Orient” simply fictions left over from the age of European imperialism?

It is not the case that the West can only be written about by Westerners or the Muslim world written about only by Muslims. But scholars, policymakers, cultural commentators, and even members of the general public must resist the temptation to fall into either ethnocentrism when analyzing their own culture, or dismissal and chauvinism when analyzing other cultures.

Our discussion of the ideological...

Shortform Exercise: Understand Orientalism

Explore the main takeaways from Orientalism.

Explain how the idea of a separate and distinct “Orient” helped to define how Europeans thought of themselves as a separate religious, ethnic, and cultural sphere.