NOTE: Tomorrow will be the 20th anniversary of Edward Said’s death.
Lorenzo Forlani at Middle East Eye:
Forty-five years have passed since the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said published his seminal 1978 book, Orientalism. It was a breakthrough in understanding western representations of an unspecified notion of the “Orient”, stretching from Asia to North Africa.
Said presents a framework for identifying and analysing the myths and stereotypes about the East that have long dominated western discourses, media representations, and academic scholarship.
Decades later, there is certainly greater awareness of the harm perpetuated by such constructs, particularly those pitting Islam against the West, which, according to Said, are “perceived as a discourse of power originating in an era of colonialism”.
Yet the post-9/11 era, in which racist and Islamophobic narratives were deployed to justify imperialist wars, demonstrates that not much has changed.
More here.