SOURCE: "The Mother as Other: Orientalism in M. Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior," in Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in 20th-Century Literature, edited by Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. 132-52.

In the following essay, Mylan examines what she terms as elements of Orientalism in Kingston's portrayal of her mother in The Woman Warrior.

In the time since Edward Said's Orientalism was first published in 1978, the investigation of Western society's attempts to contain and represent non-Western cultures has become even more important. Postcolonialist studies have increased attention to the imperialist and ethnocentric spirit which underlies the discourse of so-called advanced societies. Since such discourses mask their ideological intentions to dominate, it is essential that they be interrogated to see the ways in which non-Western societies are cast into the role of Other. Denigrating non-Western belief systems, the West sets up its own values and standards as right...