View a FREE sample

Chapter 1: The Scope of Orientalism, Part I: Knowing the Oriental

• NOTE: Citations in this Lesson Plan refer to the following version of the book: Said, Edward. Orientalism. Random House, Inc. First Vintage Books Edition, October 1979.

• Edward W. Said opens his book with a lengthy Introduction which introduces and defines the term “Orientalism," as well as establishes the author’s thesis regarding the Western viewpoints of the East.

• Orientalism, as defined by Said, refers to the cultural study of Middle Eastern, North African, and Far Eastern cultures as perceived through patronizing and errant Western depictions.

• In the first section of the Chapter 1, Part I: Knowing the Oriental, author Edward Said introduces Arthur James Balfour, one of the key figures in British politics involving Egypt.

• Balfour argued that Egyptians and all other countries in the Orient depended upon Western rule and control.

• This supremacy of the West versus the East...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 4,052 words (approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample