What does it mean that Orientalism is premised upon Exteriority?
Representation, according to Said, can be characterized by exteriority and imaginativeness. Said affirms that “Orientalism is premised upon exteriority, that is, on the fact that the Orientalist, poet or scholar, makes the Orient speak, describes the Orient, renders its mysteries plain for and to the West” (21).
How did Edward Said define Orientalism?
He argues that Orientalism is “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’ (2003: 2). In this way, Orientalism tends to rely on a binary opposition between the West and the East that most of times is misleading and destructive.
Who coined the term Orient and Occident?
In 1849, the American Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of activity. The one looks in the sun till his eyes are put out; the other follows him prone in his westward course”.
What is difference between Occident and Orient?
The Orient is a term for the East, traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Eastern world, in relation to Europe. It is the antonym of Occident, the Western World.
Why is it called Occidental?
The word oriental derives from the Latin orient-, oriens, meaning “the east” or “the part of the sky where the sun rises.” Occidental, in contrast, derives from the Latin occident-, occidens, meaning “the west” or “the part of the sky where the sun sets.” The geographical regions known as “the Orient” and “the Occident …
Who are orients and Occidents?
What does the Occident mean?
Definition of the Occident formal + literary. : the western areas of the world especially : Europe and America.
What word is the opposite of Occidental?
The word occidental is uncommon these days, in part because it’s historically been the opposite of oriental, a term for the Eastern countries of the world, mainly Asia — which has come to be considered offensive (or at least old-fashioned).
What are the three elements of Orientalism?
Part of the pervasive power of Orientalism is that it refers to at least three different pursuits, all of which are interdependent: an academic discipline, a style of thought and a corporate institution for dealing with the Orient.
What is an occidental person?
1. A person born in the Occident or a member of a people of that region. noun. 1. Of, pertaining to, or situated in, the occident, or west; western.