Orientalism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With the term Orientalism called Edward Said in his first 1978 published work Orientalism (German title: Orientalism ) the Euro-centric , western view of the societies of the Middle East or the Arab world as a "style of rule, restructuring and the authority of ownership over the Orient ". This thinking expresses a feeling of superiority over the Orient and is part of the modern political and intellectual culture of our present. It presents itself as a discourse in which the “enlightened West” negotiates the “mysterious Orient” just as much as it dominates and is characterized by the unbroken tradition of deep-seated hostility towards Islam . In his study, Said limits his criticism of "academic orientalism," i. H. of the academic subject of Oriental Studies or Islamic Studies , to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His thesis, in which he is based on the concept of discourse of Michel Foucault is based, have since been taken care of much controversy.

Romanticizing depiction of a black man as an example of orientalism. Jean-Léon Gérôme : a dark-skinned gentleman (master of dogs)

precursor

There was criticism of orientalist positions long before Said's publications. In 1925 , Nâzım Hikmet wrote against the romanticizing and exoticist positions of the French "Turkish lover" Pierre Loti :

“This is the Orient as the French poet saw it! This is the Orient of Books, one million of which are printed every minute! But there was neither yesterday nor there is such an Orient today and it will not exist tomorrow either! "

- Nâzım Hikmet : from: Piyer Loti , 1925

Said's Critique of Orientalism

Popular fantasy about harem and hammam . Jean-Léon Gérôme : "Bath in the Harem" (1889)

Using Michel Foucault's approaches , Said analyzes the works of British and French scholars and writers. His concern is to show that their work is not about an objective consideration of the Islamic or "oriental" world, indeed that the concept of the Orient as such is already a western one. H. orientalist construct. In addition, the work expresses a colonialist approach that corresponds to the power relationship between colonialists and colonized people.

Western thinking is characterized by establishing definitions by juxtaposing oppositesː While the " West " is viewed as "the" civilization per se, the Orient appears mysterious and threatening. In this game of differences, the Orient is also occupied with apparently positive ascriptions such as "spontaneous", "luxurious" and "mystical", which on closer inspection, however, force the Orient again into a power system that, in contrast to the Occident, constitutes it as backward. Because in the apparently positive ascriptions there were implicit assumptions, such as that the Orient was mystical, in contrast to the apparently scientific Occident. These aspects make Orientalism a specific form of othering .

Western authors would see themselves in a position to define the situation and the people of the Orient through the knowledge of domination and thus deprive them of their right to self-determination. This power of definition resulted in exoticist , culturalist and also openly racist images that served to legitimize the colonization of the Orient.

Criticism of Said's criticism of orientalism

Against Said's analysis, it was argued that it had weaknesses in terms of both methodology and content, for example with regard to the lack of geographical specification or the lack of time limitation.

Here, for example, Carl W. Ernst started by trying to get between the concepts of Occidentalism and Orientalism in his reflections on the relationship between “West” and “Islam”. "It is time to move beyond both Occidentalism and Orientalism." Ernst tries to re-conceptualize the relationship without the charged terms, whereby he first deconstructs the supposed pair of opposites of the conceptsː “The fact is that, both historically and in contemporary times, Muslims have played significant roles in relation to both America and Europe. In short, the opposition between "the West" and Islam is considerably overstated. " Then he is concerned with the question of how the two concepts can be particularized by working out specific country-specific and regional characteristics. Regions and history would represent correctives for the dualistic thinking in these concepts. As soon as the ideologically shaped space of thought is left and concrete examples are taken into account, the dichotomy is broken. In terms of content, the homogeneous presentation of the orientalist discourse is problematic, since it cemented the distinction between Orient and Occident, which should be abolished, and thereby constantly implies a real Orient.

Recent case studies such as those by Urs App show that religious and ideological ideologies of orientalists often played a much more important role than colonialism and imperialism and that the "Orient" had to be understood much broader than was the case with Said and his epigones. This is one of the reasons why states like Germany, which Said almost completely overlooked, were able to play an extremely important role in scientific oriental studies as well as in the broader field of orientalism.

Said's critique of orientalism as a basis for further research

Said's work is an important basis for postcolonial science, which with his approach examines previous scientific findings for their ideological content and can use various examples to show how strong the relationship between Europe and other regions - such as the Balkans , India or China - is colonialist assumptions. Other studies show that processes of orientalization and auto-orientalization progress, that the Orient is also constructed by the Orient itself.

Since the mid-1990s, following Said, a lively discussion has developed among Southeastern Europe scholars to what extent Said's theses are relevant and appropriate for research into the perception of the Balkans. Under the heading of "Balkanism" ( Balkanism ) this discussion was v. a. initiated by Maria Todorova and Andrew Hammond and has not yet been completed. In her writings, Todorova argues that Western Balkanism should be interpreted as a concept that is little dependent on, and perhaps even contradicts, conventional "Orientalism", especially since the Balkans typically occupy a middle position between Occident and Orient. However, this assessment was contradicted in whole or in part by others, namely Mary C. Neuburger and Diana Mishkova.

Said's concept has since been applied to other non-European cultures. Thus, Hans-Peter Rodenberg set out how the image of the North American Indian is initially followed the respective legimatorischen needs of the colonial, the emerging American society. Donald Sewell Lopez Jr. and Volker Zotz have examined the Western preoccupation with Buddhism in terms of Western projections.

Criticisms and extensions of Said's analyzes from a feminist point of view can be found in the writings of Reina Lewis , Anne McClintock and Meyda Yeğenoğlu .

Translations

Said's work has been translated into various languages, including numerous European languages, Japanese, Korean and Hebrew. The Arabic translation is by Kamal Abu Deeb, a Syrian poet. The German version from 1979 is currently out of print. In 2009, S. Fischer published a new translation provided by Hans Günter Holl.

See also

literature

The Arab Market (Giulio Rosati)
  • Amin, Abbas: Egyptomania and Orientalism: Egypt in German travel literature (1175–1663). With a chronological index of the travel reports (383-1845) . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2013 (= Studies on German Literature, Vol. 202) e- ISBN 978-3-11-029923-6 ISBN 978-3-11-029893-2 .
  • Bernd Adam: Said's Orientalism and the Historiography of Modernity: The “Eternal Orient” as a construct of Western historiography. Diplomica, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-6317-0 .
  • Urs App: William Jones's Ancient Theology. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 191 (September 2009) (PDF 3.7 MB, 125 p .; case study by an orientalist criticized by Edward Said, which highlights dimensions of early modern orientalism that Said overlooked)
  • Urs App: The Birth of Orientalism . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 ( ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4 ).
  • Iman Attia (Hrsg.): Orient- und IslamBilder - Interdisciplinary contributions to orientalism and anti-Muslim racism . Münster, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89771-466-3
  • Uta Bellmann: '"Orientations" - On the emergence of European images of the Orient and Arabia in antiquity.' Klaus Schwarz Verlag Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-87997-370-5 .
  • Michael Bernsen (ed.): Orientalism in the French literature of the XIX. Century. Tübingen (Niemeyer) 2006.
  • Klaus-Michael Bogdal (Ed.): Orient Discourses in German Literature . Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-89528-555-4
  • Ian Buruma , Avishai Margalit : Occidentalism. The West in the Eyes of its Enemies Hanser-Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-446-20614-0
  • Carl W. Ernst: "'The West and Islam?' Rethinking Orientalism and Occidentalism "Inː Ishraq: Islamic Philosophy Yearbook . Volume 1 (Moscow - Tehran), 2010, pp. 23–34
  • Andre Gingrich : Frontier Myths of Orientalism. The Muslim World in Public and Popular Cultures of Central Europe. In: MESS. Piran 1996. Eds. Bojan Baskar & Borut Brumen, Ljubljana, 1998
  • Charis Goer, Michael Hofmann (ed.): The German Orient. Images of the Orient in German literature and culture from 1770 to 1850 . Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7705-4428-8 .
  • Jack Goody: The Theft of History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006.
  • Stefan R. Hauser : Orientalism. In: The New Pauly. 15/1/2001, pp. 1233–1243 (Excellent, concise summary of the core theses and the associated problems.)
  • Todd Kontje: German Orientalisms University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2004.
  • Kuan-wu Lin: Western spirit in the eastern body ?: "Medea" in the intercultural theater of China and Taiwan. On the universalization of Greek antiquity Transcript, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 3-8376-1350-X .
  • Sabine Mangold : A "cosmopolitan science". German oriental studies in the 19th century . Stuttgart, 2004, ISBN 3-515-08515-7 ( review)
  • Jessica Breidbach, Thomas Neubner, Ivo Tateo: "Orientalism as an element of the media discourse about parallel societies. Collective symbol-mediated enemy image constructions in caricatures". In: Werner Köster (ed.): Parallel societies. Discourse analyzes on the media dramatization of migration . Essen 2009, pp. 119–133.
  • Suzanne L. Marchand : German Orientalism in the Age of Empire - Religion, Race, and Scholarship , Cambridge University Press, German Historical Institute Series, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-51849-9
  • Andrea Polaschegg : The other orientalism. Rules of German-Oriental Imagination in the 19th Century . Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-11-018495-8
  • Orient / Oriental / Orientalism , in: R. Radhakrishnan : A Said dictionary . Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012 ISBN 978-1-4051-8378-9 , pp. 76-82
  • Edward Said : Orientalism. Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag 1979, ISBN 3-596-12240-6 , Ullstein Verlag 1981 (out of print); Fourth German new edition March 2014. ISBN 978-3-10-071008-6 Engl, available: Orientalism . 1st Vintage Books Ed 1979, ISBN 0-394-74067-X
  • Markus Schmitz: Cultural criticism without a center. Edward W. Said and the counterpoints of critical decolonization . Bielefeld: transcript-Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-89942-975-6 .
  • Burkhard Schnepel, Gunnar Brands, Hanne Schönig (eds.): Orient - Orientalistik - Orientalismus. History and topicality of a debate , Postcolonial Studies, transcript, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1293-6 .
  • Gereon Sievernich and Hendrik Budde (eds.): Europe and the Orient 800 - 1900 . Gütersloh, Munich 1989. Volume 1: Exhibition catalog. Volume 2: Reader for the exhibition. (May 28 - August 27, 1989. An exhibition of the 4th Festival of World Cultures Horizons '89 in the Martin-Gropius-Bau , Berlin). ISBN 3-570-04814-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Said: Orientalism . Ullstein 1981. p. 10.
  2. ↑ Nâzım Hikmet: The air is heavy as lead . 3rd edition Berlin: Dagyeli Verlag, 2000, p. 8
  3. ↑ The Russian Oriental Studies is not considered and the German / Hungarian Said certifies that it is "clean" Said: Orientalism , 1978. Ch.1 pp. 2 & 4
  4. ^ Gerd Baumann: Grammars of Identity / Alterity: A Structural Approach . 2nd Edition. 2005, p. 20 .
  5. ↑ Ernst 2010, p. 23
  6. ↑ Ernst 2010, p. 24.
  7. ^ APP, Urs: The Birth of Orientalism . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4 ). See also App, Urs: William Jones's Ancient Theology. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 191 (September 2009) (PDF 3.7 MB, 125 pp.)
  8. ^ Gensler, Paul: "German Orientalism in the Orient Cycle by Karl May" [1]
  9. ↑ (Eds.) Pouillon, Francois / Vautin, Jean-Claude (2011): l'après orientalisme: L'Orient créé par l'Orient . Paris: Karthala, ISBN 978-2-8111-0543-3
  10. ↑ Schnepel, Burkhard / Brands, Gunnar / Schönig Hanne (eds.) (2011): Orient - Orientalistik - Orientalismus. History and topicality of a debate . Bielefeld: transcript, ISBN 978-3-8376-1293-6
  11. ^ Maria Todorova: "The Balkans: From Discovery to Invention" . In: Slavic Review . No. 53 , 1994, pp. 453-482 .
  12. ^ Maria Todorova: Imagining the Balkans. Updated edition . UP, Oxford 2009.
  13. ^ Maria Todorova: Scaling the Balkans. Essays on Eastern European Entanglements . Brill, Leiden 2018.
  14. ^ Andrew Hammond, "The Uses of Balkanism: Representation and Power in British Travel Writing, 1850-1914" . In: The Slavonic and East European Review . tape 82 , 2004, pp. 601-624 .
  15. ↑ Andrew Hammond, "Typologies of the East: On Distinguishing Balkanism and Orientalism" . In: Nineteenth-Century Contexts . No. 29 , 2007, p. 201-218 .
  16. ^ Mary C. Neuburger: The Orient Within. Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria . Ithaca - London 2004.
  17. ↑ Diana Mishkova: Beyond Balkanism. The Scholarly Politics of Region Making . Abingdon 2018.
  18. ↑ Hans-Peter Rodenberg: The imagined Indian: On the dynamics of cultural conflict and socialization of the foreign , edition suhrkamp, ​​1994
  19. ^ Donald Lopez: Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West , The University of Chicago Press, 1998
  20. ↑ Volker Zotz: On the blissful islands. Buddhism in German culture. Berlin: Theseus 2000 ( ISBN 3-89620-151-4 )
  21. ^ Edward Said: Orientalism . Penguin Books, London 2003, afterword from 1995