Edward Said and Orientalism

Dr Virginia Whiles


Monday, April 30th

4.30pm

Lecture Theatre


This lecture will address the theme of Orientalism along three different paths: firstly as a western academic tradition of research into the ‘Orient’; secondly as a 19th Century movement in European painting; and lastly as discourse within Western literature, which is defined in Edward Said's book Orientalism (1978) as 'A mode for defining the presumed cultural inferiority of the Islamic Orient'. The three aspects will be interwoven through a discussion of imagery and texts relating to imperialist history, romanticism, topographical realism, naturalism, ethnography, photography, eroticism and social realism in order to question the underlining ideologies behind the movement and its disturbing aftermaths today.

Key text: Edward Said (1978), Orientalism, Penguin Books