The word Orient refers to people from the "East" and the word
Occident refers to people form the "West", that is, as perceived by
western Europeans.
Orientalism is a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes,
exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures
as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often involves seeing
Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times
dangerous.
Edward W. Said, in his groundbreaking book, Orientalism,
defined it as the acceptance in the West of “the basic distinction
between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories,
epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts
concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny and so
on.”
A central idea of Orientalism is that Western knowledge about
the East is not generated from facts or reality, but from
preconceived archetypes that envision all "Eastern" societies as
fundamentally similar to one another, and fundamentally dissimilar
to "Western" societies.
This discourse establishes "the East" as antithetical to "the
West". Such Eastern knowledge is constructed with literary texts
and historical records that often are of limited understanding of
the facts of life in the Middle East.
According to Said, Orientalism dates from the period of
European Enlightenment and colonization of the Arab World.
Orientalism provided a rationalization for European colonialism
based on a self-serving history in which “the West” constructed
“the East” as extremely different and inferior, and therefore in
need of Western intervention or “rescue”.
Examples of early Orientalism can be seen in European paintings
and photographs and also in images from the World’s Fair in the
U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The paintings, created by European artists of the 19th and
early 20th centuries, depict the Arab World as an exotic and
mysterious place of sand, harems and belly dancers, reflecting a
long history of Orientalist fantasies which have continued to
permeate our contemporary popular culture.
Examples of Orientalism include the frequent ordering of
executions at the slightest offense, extravagant military outfits,
and ridiculous mock Arab accents just to name a few.
The film's main character, the Admiral General Aladeen, is
supposed to mainly represent Libya's one ruling dictator from
1977-2011, Muammar Gaddafi. Other rulers Aladeen is supposed to
represent include Aladeen are Idi Amin, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong Il.
The film has been criticized by many Arabs due to the large
number of important Arab characters that are not portrayed by Arabs
themselves. The Dictator also includes anti-Semitic views and
frequent jokes about the repressed people of "his
country".
Since the film's release in November of 1992 by Walt Disney
Pictures, Aladdin has become one of Disney's most successful films
to date, being ranked as the fourth highest film based on
popularity ("Best Disney Movies"). Unfortunately, the film has long
been criticized for its unfair portrayal of the Arab world and is
one of the more widely known examples of modern Orientalism still
present in Western society today.
After 9/11, for example, orientalist influence on US foreign
policy led to a Manichean view of "good west versus bad Islamic
world" becoming dominant.
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