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Orientalism
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» Orientalism from Soccer Dad
Crossing the Rubicon2 quotes from a book review:The late Edward Said’s Orientalism, published in 1978 and an ongoing campus best-seller since, fatally tarnished the designation “Orientalist,” an honorific title previously embraced by scholars of the Ea... [Read More]
Tracked on March 3, 2005 05:43 AM
Comments
1
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BobW
said:
I just read the book review by Joshua Halberstam. He could have added to his list of Orientalists, Lev Tolstoy. Ahthough fiction, he wrote THE COSSACKS and HADJI MURAT.
Re "the Caucasus and their neighbors,...Islamic tolerance."; this might be why the traditional Eastern Orientalists want to write the history. Tolerance could be witnessed after Russia annexed Georgia in 1800. The surrounding areas practiced tolerance because the Czar's army and constabulary would send them to Allah otherwise.
Some material is a little sketchy. Nussimbaum's mom was a "radical Communist, committed suicide."....
The review was well worth reading. I know the area also contained the "Mountain Jews".
Kol tuv,
bobW
Posted by: BobW on March 3, 2005 11:46 AM
2
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felix quigley
said:
I find this actually a very important piece of writing because it pinpoints something which is always present in discussing the Israeli issue. When one gathers all the facts of history what emerges is the constant threat to the Jewish presence in the Middle East. It is the gathering of these facts which is so important. For example one of the greatest hoaxes has been the Deir Yassin event. Now we are beginning to be able to answer this hoax on which anti-Semitism is built.
So on to Said. People who are hard to read usually have something to hide. Said was out of that mould. He was telling a one-sided story. He was a liar. Historical facts to him were nothing. As the writer says: ´creating definitions to limit inquiry´. I feel that the Jewish struggle, in a struggle now for life, has got to embrace academic inquiry. It itself is a struggle. There are historians and then there are Said and his followers.
Posted by: felix quigley on March 4, 2005 06:44 AM
Orientalism
Crossing the Rubicon2 quotes from a book review:
I tried reading Orientalism, without much success. Despite being written by a professor of English literature, the prose incredibly dense. Still the point of Said's book - and a theme consistently repeated through his writing - was that Westerners could not properly study and write about Islam. Any attempt by a Westerner to do so meant that the scholar was judging the Islamic world and was, therefore, racist. This view had the distinct advantage of shutting down debate or any serious academic inquiry. Even now it appears that Said's ideas hold sway in the halls of academia more than the ideas of Bernard Lewis despite the fact that 1) Said's academic area of interest was not the Middle East and Lewis's is and 2) Said introduced no sense of inquiry to his work on the Middle East, his game was creating definitions to limit inquiry whereas Lewis studies the Middle East with an eye toward learning something new.
What's remarkable is the degree to which academia supports Said.
When Justus Reid Weiner debunked Edward Said's myths about himself, there was an avalanche of letters to Commentary from academics protesting Weiner's temerity for challenging an icon who was above reproach. (Said was "fake but accurate" according to these academics.)
I've read a little bit of Bernard Lewis (one book, several articles). One thing that emerges is that despite his criticisms of the Islamic world it is a world that he loves. Of course that matters little in today's academic world where hewing to a political ine is more important than is open inquiry.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
Posted by David Gerstman at March 3, 2005 05:38 AM