SAID’S ORIENTALISM: EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP AS A WAY OF REALIZING AND JUSTIFYING ORIENTAL PROJECTS
SAID’S ORIENTALISM: EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP AS A WAY OF REALIZING AND JUSTIFYING ORIENTAL PROJECTS

Summary/Abstract: Orientalism has been a highly controversial subject matter which was triggered centuries ago. Various methods have been applied by the Westerners in order to explore and invade the exotic nature of the Orient so as to conquer it and benefit from all aspects of the virgin lands. European scholars and European scholarship have performed the biggest portion of this process since the more the Occident knew about the Orient, the more power and authority they exerted on the Orient and the Oriental. This, on the whole, helped the Occident describe and shape the Orient and the Oriental in accordance with the required policies in an unending time-scope since their policies and ambitions kept changing over time. Edward W. Said’s invaluable work, Orientalism, made a great contribution to the area and it also provided essential answers to the question how the Europeans succeeded in encapsulating the Oriental world in colonized nations and cultures by way of their studies and scholarships. This study, therefore, endeavours to highlight Said’s observations on the European scholars and scholarships as ways of imperialist impositions on the Orient as well as Westerners’ justification and realization of their projects on the Oriental world.

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