Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics

Orientalism, as explored by Edward Said in 1978, was a far more complex phenomenon than many suspected, being homogenous along the lines of neither culture nor time. Instead, it is deeply embedded in the collective re-imaginings that were–and are–nationalism. The dozen essays in Genealogies of Orientalism argue that the critique of orientalism, far from being exhausted, must develop further. To do so, however, a historical turn must be made, and the ways in which modernity itself is theorized and historicized must be rethought. Contributors to this groundbreaking work provide a complex and historically situated genealogy for the critique of orientalism by examining the divergence of the British and the French colonial experiences and by investigating the colonial forms of knowledge that emerged in each of these broad imperial modes. Looking beyond the usual geography of colonial theory, this work broadens the focus from the Middle East and India to other Asian societies.By exploring orientalism in literary and artistic representations of colonial subjects, the authors illuminate the multifaceted ways in which modern cultures have drawn on orientalist images and indigenous self-representations. It is in this complex, cross-cultural collision that the overlapping of orientalism and nationalism can be found.