Orientalism of Edward Said

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C. Orientalism of Edward Said

One of the famous figures of postcolonial theory is Edward W. Said, born in Palestine who later developed a career in the United States. In accordance with a history of his life, moved from one country to another, the theme of his works too, especially Orientalism, described about separation, marginality, hybridists, and other stranger characteristics. 15 It is the spirit of opposition, not accommodation, which is holding me. For romance, interests, challenges found in the intellectual life of defiance against the status quo at a time when the struggle for the interests of the marginalized and the poor seem unfairly weighed. My background in Palestinian politics reinforce this. In the Western world and the Arab rift becoming more and more days with separate groups who are not wealthy haves. And among the intellectual environment of power that produces ignorance truly shocking, said Edward W. Said. 16 The statement above, leads us to an idea that he was a man who is always nervous at the injustice against humanity in any hemisphere. He opposed not only injustice committed by his opponent, but also by his friend. Said is not only destroying the injustice from a distance, but also from close range. He does not use stones and bullets but by the sharpness of the pen. Critics of color in the West apply Saids approach to raise the issue of marginalized groups. The representation of marginalized groups by the dominant discourse is seen as the practice of domination that uses language as a tool of power. 17 15 Leela Gandhi 2001, loc. cit. p.215. 16 Edward W.Said, Peran Intelektual terj. Jakarta: yayasan Obor Indonesia,1998 p. ii. 17 Muhidin M Dahlan penyunting, Postkolonialisme: sikap kita terhadap imperialism. Yogyakarta: jendela Grafika, 2001 p. 27. 13 In relation to post colonialism, Said refused the linearity of history; by contrast, intellectual Orient must build a new historical consciousness of the oppressed group. Postcolonial theory covers the entire national literature has ever experienced since the beginning of colonialization imperial power until now including, Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean, India, Malta, New Zealand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific Islands, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Orientalism is to explore the history of unequal relations between the Middle Eastern world and the East on one side with imperialism Europe and America on the other. Edward Saids book Orientalism has produced anxiety and fear as well as enlightenment in various scientific disciplines such as cultural studies, area studies and in particular gave birth to a scientific study known as the academic environment of colonial discourse analysis. 18 Edward Saids idea is very knowledgeable, he discusses the various local cultural contexts, so often referred to as traveling theory. Edward Said has acknowledged Thought brings tremendous influence for the analysis of colonialism and colonial thinking. He has pioneered a new field for research academic environment. Orientalism is generally regarded as the catalyst and reference point for post colonialism and represents the first phase of postcolonial theory. 19 Edward Said prefers to call the East as the silent others. Through a critique of science by using the perspective of the other, then the post- 18 Akhyar Yusuf Lubis 2006, op. cit. p. 215. 19 Leela Gandhi 2001, op. cit. p. 88. 14 colonial studies are also constructing new forms of knowledge better with honor and respect the other side the other. Orientalism by Edward Said is term that can be defined by three different ways. First, Orientalism as a mode of thinking or paradigm based on epistemology and ontology that clearly distinguish between the East with the West; Second, Orientalism can also be understood as an academic degree to describe a series of institutions, disciplines and activities that are generally found in Western universities who care study Eastern society and culture; Third, Orientalism as an official institution that is intrinsically concerned with the East. Said ideological unloading behind the binary opposition of West East are constructed by the discourse of nation-Eastern country that produced by a European. According to Said, a variety of knowledge about the East was coined to project for each trend in Europe is not desirable: the primitive East is used as a mirror image contrast to raise Europe as a pioneer of civilization. Furthermore myths and stereotypes about Eastern Europe used as a means of justification for colonization, master, tame and control the presence of the other. By displaying marginal groups negatively reinforce the dominant discourse of power, or provide justification for its domination. 20 Said further suggests the meaning of Orientalism in three overlapping areas, namely the First, Orientalism creates a long bitter history of relations between Europe and Asia-Africa. Second, creating areas of science was beginning since 19th century as a specialist in oriental languages and culture. 20 Melani Budianta. “Teori Sastra Sesudah strukturalisme: dari Study Teks ke Study Wacana Budaya ”. Teori dan Kritik Sastra, 2002 Mei 27-30, 2002, p. 50. 15 Third, colonialism created stereotypes and ideology of the Orient which is associated with The Other or the other of The Occident the Self. Thus, Edward Said argued the need for understanding of very complex philosophical problems in interpreting other cultures. Said opinion above, clearly influenced by Foucault in which the construction of Orientalist discourse is more a construction than a dialogue between two cultures which are equal by assuming that the dialogue is more emphasized rationality and achievement of an agreement that puts the side dialogue on an equal position from the position of hegemonic and repressive. In his book Orientalism, Said shows how the imagination of East and West about how power and knowledge-hook intertwined in the writings of the Orientalists. Said related discourse theory, power relations and knowledge to society and the political struggle in everyday life. Both the “East” and West is the result of the construction of an idea or ideas associated with a social- cultural reality. Said states that all knowledge is a form of expression, will to power. This means that we cannot possibly talk about an absolute truth or objective knowledge. According to Said, if natural scientists use to observe the nature of objectivity its will be good. But if the objectivity of scientists used a sociologist or the humanities in the face of human social behavior, it will result in imposition of meaning, the term or definition to the object and this will trap it in the objectivity of scientists. This can be seen from the view in Said Essay‟s, The World, the Text and the Critic 1983, Said conduct a 16 research and revealed text relevance to the context or worldliness of the text. The notion of objectivity is actually an objective interpretation of the text or ignores the relationship between the texts to the context. While in subsequent works such as Culture and Imperealism as well as on the cover of the book is a reissue of Orientalism in 1995, Said argued that the presence of incredible consciousness revolution in the consciousness of women, minorities and marginal groups influence directly on the idea of mainstream in the whole world . Study the appearance of Orientalism was so attracted all the people who care about cultural studies, theoretical and scientific.

D. Character and characterization in the film