Welcome Back
Welcome back. We’re back on track. And this time, we’re going to be reading a new writer, the Palestinian writer, Edward Said, whose book Orientalism is an extraordinary challenge to a whole tradition of what may be called the European imagination (and thus the European artistic, literary and intellectual traditions).
What is the “East” in the European imagination? It includes, of course, Myanmar/Burma. And Taiwan, where I am now. And what are the relationships between these imaginings and reality?
In this class, we’re going to do a short introduction to Edward Said, and start thinking about ideas of East and West. Then I’ll set some homework for you to go away and read Said’s introduction to his book. Next time, we’ll explore the text in more detail.
Introducing Said
To introduce Said, we’ll watch this video from Middle East Eye.
Thinking Between ‘East’ and ‘West’
We’ll start by discussing these ideas of ‘East’ and ‘West’, and the role they play in building notions of difference. So let’s start with some questions:
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Is there a difference between people from the ‘East’ and from the ‘West’? If so, what is that difference?
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Where is the boundary line between ‘East’ and ‘West’?
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Can you think of examples of how ‘Eastern’ people are caricatured in ‘Western’ cultural works (literature, film etc.)? Share these examples.
We’ll then discuss this in the main group.
Examples
There are some interesting examples in visual and literary arts. Let’s look at some of them:
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Delacroix (19th century French artist): https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/orientalism-of-eugene-delacroix/
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Western artistic depictions of the ‘East’: https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/orientalism-in-nineteenth-century-art
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And Kipling… one of the worst offenders: https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_mandalay.htm. On his trip to Shwedagon, Britain’s idiotic former prime minister started to recite this poem. The then British ambassador reprimanded him…
Homework
Read the introduction to Orientalism, and share your reflections on Canvas.
Further Reading/Watching
This video from Al-Jazeera is good if you have time to watch it — but it’s not compulsory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoeymZ6-LnY