The Perception of Arabs and Islam in Edward Said’s Orientalism

Abstract

Considered one of the most significant world literary theorists, the American- Palestinian writer Edward Said (1935 – 2003) is known all over the world for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of the postcolonial study field. Additionally to his talent and recognition as a theorist,Edward Said is also a musician and critical thinker whose works deal immediately and primarily with the Eastern – Western connections. These works are of great cultural and literary value, the fact that allows them to be well-known all over the world and win several awards. Orientalism is one of these landmark works published in 1978, which had a great success. Through this thesis Said wanted to prove that the Western depictions of the East are definitely inaccurate cultural representations. In fact, Orientalism emphasized the idea that Western negative attitude towards the Orient is obvious in their writings as they present it as a " weak" and uncivilized culture contrasted with the "rational"and developed West ( Grzesiak , 2014 ) . By reference to the Western literary works, there is an important question that invades the reader’s mind: Literary speaking; did Western writers, intellectuals and artists have interest in the Eastern issues? If so, how did they perceive Arabs, Turks and Islam? And was the perception they had about the Oriental culture positive or negative? In this research work, following a historical and literary approach, the attempt is to reveal the kind of attitude that Western writers had towards the Eastern world. This work is divided into two chapters. The first one deals with the personal life of the writer Edward Said, and his literary works considered as major ones are listed. Moving later to speak about the historical background of the concept of Orientalism and its main meaning. More importantly, it seemed paramount to shed light on the point that Edward Said stressed on in the book, which is that Orientalism was a totally Western invention and creation to dominate and colonize the East under the pretext of civilizing it. With regard to the second chapter, it starts with an analysis of British artistic depictions of the Orient. The next title sheds light on the major British literary works including novels, poems and travellers' accounts which dealt with the East and its 3 peoples. Lastly, as women represent a valuable category of Oriental culture, it was substantial to analyse the Western attitude towards them aspresented in the literary works.