ORIENTALISM AND REPRESENTATION

Textbooks: Edward Saïd, Orientalism (New York, 1979); Thierry Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East (New York, 1992).
In Louis XIV's time one was a Hellenist, now one is an Orientalist.... For empires as for literatures, perhaps it will not be too long before the Orient is called upon to play a role in the Occident
--Victor Hugo, Les Orientales, 1829
With a specific focus on orientalist conventions in architecture, art, and scholarship, this seminar examines how politics and ideology inform the construction and reproduction of knowledge. Adopting a flexible historical framework, we will explore selected cases of cultural encounters between Europe and the "Orient" from Antiquity to the present. We will analyze particular events, texts, projects, and images that have been influential in shaping Western representations of and Western attitudes towards the “Orient.” We will investigate how revisionist and modernist "Orientals" similarly appropriate culture and history in constructing their national identities. And, at the end, we will touch upon the contemporary critical issues of post-colonial identity, exile, multiculturalism, and hybridity that are influencing how we see, represent, and react to the world around us today.
The discussions will be informed by the recent literature in post-colonial studies and cultural criticism and the growing interest in hybridity and multiculturalism which challenge both traditional orientalist and nationalist narratives. Our chief guide will be Edward Said’s classic Orientalism and its followers, reviewers, and detractors. The objective of the seminar is to help the participants gain a historically grounded awareness of the complexities of cultural identities, always contesting and sometimes subverting the representations that claim to realistically depict and define them.
The course includes weekly reading and writing assignments and requires active participation in discussions. A research paper is to be first presented in class and then submitted at the end of the term. Topics should be decided in consultation with the instructors by the end of the third week of the semester. A short abstract and preliminary bibliography should be submitted by the fourth week. The required texts are available at the Coop and area bookshops. All other readings will be available on reserve in Rotch.