<
https://theconversation.com/orientalism-edward-saids-groundbreaking-book-explained-197429>
"Whether you’re conscious of it or not, you likely have a vivid mental image of
what the Middle East looks and sounds like. You might envision a sparse
landscape, the air warped by heat and yellowed with flurries of sand. You might
hear the plucking of an oud, or a haunting voice singing in a double harmonic
scale.
This viral TikTok video captures just how salient these tropes are in our
collective awareness and in popular media. Here, TikTokers collaboratively
satirise features commonly found in Hollywood films about the Middle East, such
as
Beirut (2018),
American Sniper (2014), and
Argo (2012).
The video spoofs “the yellow filter”, a colour-grading style used when
depicting places perceived as impoverished or rife with conflict. We also hear
a crude rendition of “Arabic” music, and someone poses as a “lady in lots of
fabric staring at the camera”, parodying the unsettling mystique attributed to
Middle Eastern women.
These tropes form a part of what Palestinian-American intellectual and activist
Edward Said called Orientalism. His seminal 1978 book of the same name explores
the ways Western experts, or “Orientalists”, have come to understand and
represent the Middle East.
Said analyses a vast, organised body of knowledge on the Middle East, starting
with Napoléon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt, for which a legion of scholars, writers
and scientists were enlisted to collect as much information about Egypt as they
could. Orientalism peels back the supposedly neutral veneer of scientific
interest and discovery attached to such projects.
Said shows how Orientalist writings and ideologies actively shape the world
they describe, and how they perpetuate views of Middle Eastern people as
inferior, subservient, and in need of saving. As a result, these often racist
or romanticised stereotypes create a worldview that justifies Western
colonialism and imperialism."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
