1. Orientalism
Edward Said ( )

2. Theoretical Influences on Said’s Work
Michel Foucault: Notion of Discourse
Erich Auerbach: History and Representation
Antonio Gramsci: Concept of Hegemony

3. What is Orientalism? Three Interrelated Definitions
Study of the Orient
Style of thought
Corporate institution for dealing with the Orient

4. Main Actors and Purpose
French and British empires (from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the end of World War II)
The United States (after World War II)
Civilize the natives
Progress and “true” religion
Financial and economic benefits
Political domination and cultural control

5. Methodological Devices
Strategic Location and Strategic Formation
Exteriority and Representation
The Personal Dimension

6. Characteristics of Orientalism
Othering and Opposition
Reductionism
Distorted Forms of Representation

12. Reception and Impact of Orientalism
Defense of Islam
Challenge to Western cultural domination
Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin: “Native Americans, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, and other colonized peoples and oppressed groups located in Orientalism a method to challenge a chronic tendency of the West to deny, suppress, and distort their cultures and histories.”

13. Questions for Further Discussion
Relationship between language and representation
Relationship between knowledge and power
Role of the intellectual in the production and dissemination of knowledge

14. Role of the Intellectual
When asked in 2001 about how he would like to be remembered, Said said he would want people to eulogize that he “tried to tell the truth” (“Interview”). He often argued that it was the “intellectual's role to speak the truth, as plainly, directly, and as honestly as possible. No intellectual is supposed to worry about whether what is said embarrasses, pleases, or displeases people in power. Speaking the truth to power means additionally that the intellectual's constituency is neither a government nor a corporate or a career interest: only the truth, unadorned” (“Desolation”).