Orientalism and International Relations Theory

While reading the first half of Edward Said by Bill Ashcroft and Pal Ahluwalia, I found myself continuously comparing their critique of Said’s study of Orientalism to my own knowledge of the various theoretical approaches associated with the study of International Relations. After taking a course last semester on this subject as a Political Science major, I was able to recognize how Said’s Orientalist discourse is in fact an “openly political work” (52) and similar in many ways to the  meta-theoretical and social/critical theorizing used to understand the relationship between states in the international system.

Said’s understanding of culture is very similar to the idea of constructivism in international relations theory. Said sees culture as both a “function of and a source of identity” (85) and it is impossible to separate a place from its norms, rules, language, and culture.  These factors, especially identity formation, are essential to constructivists in order to understand how states or regions perceive and interact with one another. The authors go even further to explain how these identities can change based on how one region (the Occident) views the other (the Orient).  The West’s way of starkly contrasting itself from the East’s cultural norms and identities, functions as a way of creating a looking-glass self where “the ‘other’ is necessary so that the Occident can define itself and strengthen its own identity by invoking such juxtaposition” (62). Said posits that power and knowledge go together, where the knowledge the West has of the East's identity shapes the way they interact, and ultimately caused the Occident to demonstrate dominance over the Orient. The hegemonic status of the West allows for them to impose their moral and ethical views on the East, which “propogates the aims of imperialism” (63) and Western superiority.

What I’m interested in is seeing how this idea manifests in the literature, and how accurately Said’s theory explains the Orientalist’s representation of the East within the text.