Orientalism Goes to the Movies: A Critical Discourse Analysis of The Dictator (original) (raw)

Orientalism and Post-Colonial Legacies: Representations of the Other

This paper attempts to present representations of post-colonial cultures by previously colonizing powers and their evolution. Reactions to Western self-perception and Western perception of "the Other" appear in media such as film and literature, which are discussed here. Soft power of post-colonial states as they strive to synthesize newer discourse through film and other forms of media is thus demonstrated to be a significant force in promoting reclamation and development of more independent identities and the breaking down of the Orientalist lens.

The Oriental Rebel in Western History

Edward Said’s Orientalism through deconstructing colonial discourses of power-knowledge, postulates that colonization for the colonized has a particular ontological finality, reification. I contend here that the process of subjection has a far more profound effect than merely reifying the colonized, to borrow from Anouar Abdel-Malek, as customary, passive, non-participating and non-autonomous. Rather, Western imperial narratives and what Said calls its “evaluative judgments” and “program of actions” also come to interpellate the reified subject’s cosmovision, agency and its forms of resistance. Focusing on the Middle East, this study is a genealogy that exposes how techniques and technologies of imperial power have symbolically and materially produced the Oriental rebel in Western history. Through re-reading institutionalized knowledges and resurrecting a counter-history, this paper reveals a hidden and buried discursive formation, one which I call counter-revolutionary discourse. I argue that this system of thought is built through dispersed and heterogeneous but power-laden statements from Aymeric and Comte de Volney to Napoleon Bonaparte, Ernest Renan, Gustave Lebon, and Thomas Friedman.

Orientalism on Trial: Rethinking The Post-colonial Project in The East

International Journal of Arts and Humanities Studies

This article explores the perplexities revolving in the vicinity of Orientalism. It tries to discern, dissect, and (re)view Orientalism and its role in shaping today’s world, more importantly, the binomial ambivalence of the West versus East connection. Said’s work, Orientalism, is going to be the locus of this article. In his book, the author tries to describe how the West perceives and represents the East. Through the author’s journey in the U.S., where he spent most of his life, he noticed that the West considers the East a one homogenous and static body. Edward Said’s stance on the separation of the world into two entities and the postcolonial project did not go unnoticed. In this article, the author’s work is analyzed in relation to his critics such as Ahmed Aijaz, Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, and others.

Orientalism and State Discourse in the Post-Colonial Era

Research Paper for Master Class ANSO105The State: Post-colonial perspectives, by Professor Shalini Randeria, the Graduate Institute, Geneva, 2017, 2017

In the colonial era, orientalist thought was used as a justification for the Western colonial powers to intervene in the East. However, it should be noted that the meaning of the term orientalism has been changed; currently, it is not a style of thought anymore. Instead, it is a powerful ideology that helps to assess the distinction between the East and the West. Therefore, this paper aims to demonstrate how orientalist thought is still prevalent in today’s world and argues that orientalism influences state discourse in the post-colonial context.

Postcolonial Resistance of Western Imperialist Ideology: Constructing Identities of Others As Violent Savages

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

This paper examines how hegemonic discourse, or the ideology of a dominant society has essentialized, fixed, and divided identities through the construction of binary division of Western's ideology as civilized and Others as savages. The development of postcolonial theory will be introduced with special consideration to Said's (1995) theory of Orientalism and Spivak's (1988) concept of "silencing the Others." Sample Western literary texts will show a concerted expression of colonial ideology supporting the concept of binary divisions. These will include The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1990), Robinson Crouse by Daniel Defoe (1899), Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (2001), and Passage to India by E. M. Foster (1985). In contrast, literary works by minority authors, mainly postcolonialists, will be examined and considered according to how effectively they resist Western imperialist ideology.

The East-West Dichotomy: From Orientalism to Postcoloniality

IOSR Journals , 2019

The main purpose of this study is to define and explain the concept of 'Orientalism' developed and practised by Edward Said, a pioneer postcolonial theorist. According to him, the concept of Orientalism refers to the western views about the Orient or the East. However, it has raised a number of debates among the scholars on defining his concept. It can be defined in three ways as: an academic field of study, an epistemological and ontological way of looking at the world and a western hegemony. It has also been the focus of a number of controversies and polemics such as crisis on Orientalism, its connection with western theories and the rise of Occidentalism. Many scholars agree with the fact that the publication of the book Orientalism is a beginning of postcolonial discourse in history, philosophy, anthropology, arts and literature. Similarly, it provides an approach to the study of non-western texts. Interestingly because both Orientalism and NonWestern Studies deconstruct the Western Studies, both are therefore sometimes referred to as 'poststructuralist' approaches.