Media, Information and Technoculture 2200F/G Lecture 1: Said - Orientalism

• School: Western University
• Department: Media, Information and Technoculture
• Course: Media, Information and Technoculture 2200F/G
• Professor: Sasha Torres

Document Summary

The central argument of orientalism is that the way we acquire the knowledge of oriental people is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests. He argues that we look at the countries and the peoples of the middle east through a specific lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and people. He calls this lens through which we view that part of the world, orientalism. So orientalism is essentially a framework that we use to understand the unfamiliar. Orientalist discourse arises from a particular political culture and is defined by the pre assumptions of that political culture. It"s a regulated syste(cid:373) of producing knowledge within certain constraints whereby certain rules have to be observed. To thi(cid:374)k past it a(cid:374)d to (cid:374)ot use it, is (cid:448)irtually i(cid:373)possi(cid:271)le (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause there"s (cid:374)o k(cid:374)o(cid:449)ledge that is(cid:374)"t (cid:272)odified i(cid:374) this (cid:449)ay a(cid:271)out that part of the (cid:449)orld.