Orientalism Colonialist Ideology Colonial Discourse

a. Orientalism

Said’s Orientalism uses the concept of colonial discourse as a system of knowledge about the Orient, as the colonized, that was and continues to be, constructed in European thinking. Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. 54 How the West perceives and represents the East contributed to the assumption of the West superiority towards the East. 55 Therefore, the construction of European thinking about the Orient or the East is not in vacuum, there is a power that not only creates but also maintains their construction. Mostly all postcolonial theories are referring to Orientalism, especially in terms of power-relations.

b. Colonialist Ideology

Tyson’s colonialist ideology refers to the way colonialist thinking is expressed through a discourse. It is about the discourse on the way the colonizers express their own superiority. The discourse is represented in an assumption gained by contrasting it with the inferiority of the natives as the people that they invaded. Thus, this term is part of colonial discourse. Furthermore, ideology as a concept, refers to Gramsci in Loomba common sense on which ideology operates, is the practical, everyday, popular consciousness of human being, which is obviously true, common to everybody, or normative. 56 As a result, the superiority assumptions gives direction on classifying people’s characteristics based on the colonizers’ claims to strengthen their own position as the controller and the superior towards the colonized. 54 Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conception of the Orient England: The Penguin Group, 1991 p. 3 55 Said, p.46 56 Loomba, p.30 Tyson’s ways of reading the colonialist ideology claims the colonizers’ assumptions on their assumed superiority based on their technology and culture. The colonizers’ believe that their technology and culture are highly advanced, therefore they disregard the colonized’s religions, customs and codes of behavior. Relates to their position as part of the world, the colonizers see themselves at the center while the colonized is at the margin. They become the center of attention and civilization, whereas the people they invaded become the marginalized.

c. Othering