Part 3, Orientalism Now: Latent and Manifest Orientalism Summary and Analysis

Said restates his purpose in the book and in the previous chapter in the opening page to the third chapter. His purpose in the first chapter was to define the scope of thought and action meant by the word Orientalism. He used the British and French experiences to help define this term and to explain the confrontation of Westerners with the Orient. In the second chapter, Said was interested in defining modern Orientalism. Here he discussed various authors and their works. "My principal operating assumptions were - and continue to be - that fields of learning, as much as the works of even the most eccentric artist, are constrained and acted upon by society, by cultural traditions, by worldly circumstance, and by stabilizing influences like schools, libraries, and governments...