MAPPING EDWARD SAID’S ORIENTALISM 

According to Edward Said, the discourse of Orientalism is composed of three overlapping definitions. It is at once an intellectual pursuit of researching the Orient, a style of thought that compares the East to the West, and finally, a corporate institution that describes, makes claims about, dominates, and possesses the Orient. Thus, rather than observing the world directly, Said argues that Orientalism operates as an apparatus through which to view, analyze and represent the people, landscapes, and “natures” of the Orient. Furthermore, he surmises that this “imaginative geography” – the culturally constructed boundaries drawn between East and West – is not a new phenomenon and may be traced back to the ages of Ancient Greece. He writes, “The Orient was almost a European invention, and has been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” To that end, even though the boundaries between East and West change over time, the Orient maintains a distinct internal consistency whose image always reflects the needs and desires of the West. 

Rather than deconstructing, rearranging or challenging Said’s thesis of Orientalism, the diagrams that follow adopt the very premise of his thesis and illustrate the changing, yet persistent dialectic between West (in red) and East (in green). Beginning with the Myth of Europa, each diagram is an historical frame (not a period) that marks an important paradigm shift in the power dynamics and geographical boundaries between the two entities. Thierry Hentsch eloquently describes the oppositional relationship between East and West, “As essences they are complementary, yet as distinct as oil and vinegar: the blend is often savory, but the fine line separating the two seems to always reappear. The line seems to always have existed; as though, from Antiquity onward, the Orient and West have been locked in ceaseless and unrelenting combat, with the Mediterranean as its epicenter, its shifting field, its zone of demarcation.” You can download a PDF copy of the booklet under the publications tab. 

Authorship (Academic-MIT): Emily Williamson; under the direction of Professor Nasser Rabbat

*To download the booklet, please follow this link.