(Hassan Hanafi
Criticism)
Orientalism
•
Orientalism has been the Victim of
historicism from its formation via meticulous and microscopic analysis (indifferent to meaning and significance.)
•
Orientalism expresses the searching
subject more than it describes the object of research (revealing Western
mentality more than intuiting Oriental Soul).
–
motivated by the anguish of gathering the
maximum of useful information about Orient (countries, peoples and cultures).
–
The West, in its expansion outside its
geographic borders, tried to understand better in order to dominate better.
•
Classical Orientalism belongs, for the
most part, to similar aspects of colonial culture in the West (package of
hegemonic Ideologies and European Supremacy: Imperialism, Racism, Nazism,
Fascism).
•
It is an expression of Western Elan
Vital,
–
determining the power relationship
between the Self (the West) and the Other (the non West);
–
between Europe from one side and Asia,
Africa and Latin America , from the other side;
–
between the New Word and the classical
world;
–
between modern times and ancient times.
- Orientalism was the creation of the center and occidentalism is the creation of the periphery -> The West was the very center of the Universe (and the end of history).
–
The center was privileged in history of
sciences, arts and cultures, while the periphery was marginalized.
–
The center creates, sees and
conceptualizes and the periphery consumes.
–
The center is the master and the
periphery lays the disciple.
–
The center is the trainer and the
periphery is the trainee.
·
Orientalism was the victim of
Western philosophies of history (Europe as the
peak of all civilizations)
–
the fruits in modern times after planting
the seeds in ancient times,
–
the accomplishment of a theological
development,
–
the perfection of things after the
abrogation of all previous imperfections,
–
the unique Christ after the prophets of Israel
History of ancient civilizations
was reduced to the minimum and History of modern times in the West is blown up
to the maximum.
Three
thousand years of the Orient are summarized in one chapter, while five hundred
years of history of the modern West is expounded in several chapters.
Occidentalism
•
a discipline constituted in Third World countries in order to complete the process of
decolonization. (Military, economic and political decolonization would be
incomplete without scientific and cultural decolonization).
–
From object to become subject and;
–
transformation of the observed to an
observer.
The
object of study in Orientalism becomes the studying subject in Occidentalism
and vice versa
•
Occidentalism, can exchange the type of
relationship between the West and non West.
•
Occidentalism aims at evening the balance
of World historiography against historical injustice in history of world
civilization.
•
The object à to counterbalance
Westernization tendencies in the Third World .
–
The West became a model of modernization
outside itself, in Africa, Asia and Latin America .
–
Western Life style became very common in
Non-Western countries, especially in the ruling classes.
–
The imitation of the West became almost a
national behaviour.
•
These Westernization tendencies have
generated anti-Western attitudes as they appear in religious conservatism and
fundamentalism.
•
Occidentalism is partly a defence of
national character, national culture and national life-style against alienation
and disloyalty; a popular option against Orientalism as a minority option; a
mass culture against Orientalism as an elite culture; an ideology for the ruled
against Orientalism as an ideology of the ruler; a liberating device like
liberation theology against Orientalism as a dominating device, like church
dogmatics.
•
Occidentalism is a counter-field of
research in order to study the West from a non-Western World point of view.
•
The Other in the self is always an imageà
An image is always a caricature, which helps in shooting at the target.
–
Orientalism drew many images for the
Orient (Blacks, Yellows, Oriental Despotism, primitive mentality, savage
thought, Semite mind, Arab mind, Violence, fanaticism, underdevelopment,
dependence, sectarianism, traditionalism and conservatism.
–
Once the Other is caricatured, it is easy
to deal with him
•
justifying any action of the Self.
•
The image made the Other a target the
Self shoots at.
•
the Self promotes self-made image to
sharpen itself, (such as: whites, Western, democracy, logical mentality,
civilization, Arianism, peace, tolerance, development and even over
development, independence, secularism, modernism, progress.
•
By the power of mass media and its
control by the West, the perpetuation and the repetition of this double image
was made by the self:
–
to
disarm the Other and to arm the Self,
–
to create a permanent relation of
superiority-inferiority complex between the Occident and the Orient,
–
and a relationship of
inferiority-superiority complex between the Orient and the Occident.
•
Orientalism is born in an ethno-racist
culture. (It expresses Euro-centerism, based on historical pride and organic superiority:
White against Black, knowledge against ignorance, logic against contradiction,
reason against magic, rationalization against ethico-religious practice,
dignity and human rights against dignity and rights of God or of the king,
democracy versus despotism or in short, Life against death, Being against
nothingness.
•
Occidentalism corrects this type of
relationship between the West as Self and the Orient as Other to the Orient as
self and the West as Other.
•
The relation between the self and the
Other, either way, can be an equal relation, not a high-low relation, an even
and sane inter-subjective relation instead of a superiority-inferiority
complex.
•
Constructive Occidentalism is the substitute
for destructive Orientalism.
•
Occidentalism as a cultural movement aims
at transforming developing societies from transfer of knowledge to cultural
creativity. (he construction of the Nation State is based on modern sciences
coming from the West à The role of intellectuals and even of scientists was
to transfer science, art, and literature from the Western to the non-Western
World.
–
The West produces and the non- Western
World consumes.
–
The West creates and the non-Western
World transmits.
–
The Culture of the center radiates on the
peripheries.
–
The center profuses and the peripheries
diffuse.
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