Edward Said: Orient, Orientalism and Cultural Imperialism

Edward Said challenges western orientalism in an analytical way in his book, Orientalism (1978). His view of orientalism is based on finding a new relationship between the Orient and the Occident. Western orientalism refers to English, French and American ones based on the dominant power and hegemony of the West over the East which is a kind of Nietzschean will to power. From Friedrich Nietzsche’s perspective, every idea is a will to power; meanwhile, the evolution of man’s wisdom is the result of his will to power; in this way, knowledge will be the instrument of power. This paper, through Said’s analytical criticism, challenges orientalism to show that, the formal expression of will to truth is will to power that leads to a kind of cultural imperialism. Moreover, it represents a form of cultural imperialism in Said’s Orientalism, which is one of the most powerful factors of the hegemony of imperial powers especially in the colonized countries. Through amateurism, Said indicates how creating such a culture in literary works can be one of the most resisting factors in the postcolonial societies. Thus, he suffers from an intellectual personal imperialism, which is in contradiction with the world of critical theories and criticism .