In
chapter 2 of Orientalism Eward Said describes a shift in Western attitude
towards the Orient in modern times. According to Said Orientalism as a field of knowledge
romanticized the non-Western world for Western viewers. The shape and content
of the Orient was devised by Western eyes for western eyes. The Orient was to
become the exotic, a land of sunshine and romantic fantasies.
Said
explains that the Orient as the West's "other" in the 19th century took on a new modern shape which saw it as an "unspoiled"
and innocent form of human existence compared with the highly civilized,
therefore complicated and even "unnatural" Western world. This does
not mean that Westerners saw the Orient as superior to them, on the contrary,
the purity of the Orientals made them inferior to the sophisticated West. The
Orient's innocence was cause for the West to justify controlling them, even for
their own sake.
Another
justification provided by Orientalism for the rule of the West over the East
was a form of social Darwinism which pointed to the fact that the West developed
faster than other parts of the world as proof of the Westerners as biologically
superior. The higher development rate of the West led to Westerners
"discovering" others and not the other way around. This was seen as
additional proof of the West's evolutionary advantage.
Chapter
2 of Orientalism also includes an analysis by Said on the works of dominant
Orientalists in the 19th century (like Silvestre de Sacy and Ernest Renan).
Said shows the bias and prejudice inherited in their works and offers a genealogy
of their development. Finally, in the final part of chapter 2 of Orientsalism
Said describes how the image of the Orient was a cause for pilgrimage making excursions
to visit and receive inspiration for it while protecting themselves from
"its unsetting influences" (Orientalism, p.166)
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