Orientalism is a book written by Edward Said. He emphasized on the two worlds, Orient and the Occident. Orient represent the Eastern countries such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, India, China and others.
In this blog, the summaries are written based on the videos.
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The summaries of the videos are written here.
1. Edward Said on Orientalism
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In this video the topic of Orientalism is explained by Sut Jhally and Edward Said himself. Orientalism is the study of mindset of how Orient is looked by the Occident, in what ways Orient is looked upon and how it is still read in today's context. There are American and European countries who still have prejudicial thoughts regarding the Easter countries, specifically Arab countries. Eastern people are looked at as secretive, devilish, mysterious, and terrifying. Arabic world and especially Islamic countries are looked upon in this way. These countries are subjugated by the beliefs based on some terrifying events such as attack on World Trade Centre.
There is an example of an intro song of 1992 film Aladdin. In which the lyrics contain intense hot and plain, barbaric land which is often a sign of horror. In terms of depicting the land which quite unripe in Occident's understanding is itself the problematic idea.
This is the danger of the single sided story. Orientalism talks about such misconceptions and puts the logical arguments about it.
Several examples of terrorist attacks and jihad attacks are there in the video which narrates only one side of the Eastern countries.
Some understanding of Orientalism from Dr. Balaji Ranganathan's lectures.
Edward Said explanais the idea of the Orient and the Occident. In "Orientalism" he mentions very little about India and discuses more of middle East countries.
The topic also strengthens the historical aspects of the eastern countries. Silk route of Constantinople was very important for Europe to trade with the East. Istanbul became the hub of trading. Because Europe was familiar with Orient's marital production, Turkish food, clothing, culture. This made easy to trade with middle East for Europe.
Orientalism is a style of thought. Its an 18th century imagination. An imperialistic exercise of looking at the Orient with various view points. This thought is seized in 18th century only. Said's Orientalism doesn't go beyond 18th century. It covers scientific Orientalism corporate Orientalism, settling institutionalised, authorising Orientalism.
As an example, S.T. Coleridge's Kubla Khan has the idea of Orient. Kubla Khan was the son of Changez Khan. One more example is of Marco Polo. He was an Arabic explorer.
Edward Said uses Foucauldian method to describe the Orientalism.
Israel and Palestine Issue
This issue is basically a land issue. Any religious establishment, colony, tribe or entity requires land to stay, a land which they can call 'home'. But Israel was unable to find the land anywhere in the world. At first place, there was no country such as Israel. Palestine was known as Ottoman Empire and much of the Arab people residing there. But their conflict with Jewish people became more stronger. Both the Arabs and the Jews were adamant to have the land in Palestine. Many lives were lost in this conflict. West Bank and Gaza strip was remaining. Both became part of Palestine and the remaining land is now called Israel.
