Defining “Orientalism”

The term “Orientalism” is related to postcolonial studies. It was created in the XIX Century to designate “Any system, doctrine, custom, expression, etc., peculiar to Oriental people. Knowledge or use of Oriental languages, history, literature, etc.( Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).

The ideological interpretation of Orientalism appeared in the controversial book Orientalism of Edward Said, a Palestinian born / American intellectual who died in September of 2003 at the age of 67. According to Saïd:  “Orientalism is a style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and (most of the time) "the Occident ".” (Edward Said, Orientalism, New York, Vintage, 1979) 

The word “orient” is from Latin “oriente” which indicates the lands where the sun rises. The original designation were for the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, the regions that later were turned into the Byzantine Empire. The Orient became than the “Levant” that means in French “the country were the sun rises. 

In the age of the Enlightenment the Orient symbolized the rise of civilizations. It designated the eastern side of the Mediterranean, the region legated by the Ottoman Empire, like Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine / Israel.

 

In modern times, the term “Orient” has been used to designate areas that do not belong to the Western cultural hemisphere, and has been expanded to cover the regions of East Asia, as China, Japan and Korea.

  

The opening between the East and the West started with the Crusades of the Middle Age. This period was considered as the first contact with the Orient through the so called religious war. The crusading period last about 200 year, from 1095 to 1291 with the fall of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

In the XVII Century, all Europe compete to conquer the ocean, the new way to discover new spaces was through travelers, merchants and diplomats. The Orient was still closer to Europe and easier to reach. 

The XVIII Century is marked by new explorations and scientific discoveries. The industrial revolution is followed by the Civil Revolution in 1789. During this period, the Orient was a good source of herbs, spices and new products. For the intellectual European, it served as in allegory to criticize its own government and society. 

The romantic orientalism appeared in the XIX Century. After the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the two powers of Europe, France and Britain, rivaled to colonize the Orient. The diplomatic and economical exchanges enhanced the travels and made them easier. For artists, the Orient became the source of their romantic dream and the more personal encounter with the “Other”. The vision of Orient was individualized. At this time the terms “Orientalism” and “Orientalist” were in use, and they became later an aspect of colonialism, as Saïd confirmed:

The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other. (Edward Said, Orientalism, New York, Vintage, 1979)

Orientalism is a very large concept it involved multiple spaces and multiple periods of time, its meaning vary depending on the context and on the relation between the East and the West.