Last December, when the Institut d’Egypte was burned down, I thought immediately of Edward Said. Napoleon’s expedition to Europe is described at the beginning of Orientalism, where it is a classic example of how academic and scientific discoveries anticipate and enable imperial conquest. The Institut was established shortly after Napoleon’s invasion, and remained a powerful reminder […]
James North: Orientalism takes a different form in sub-Saharan Africa. There, Orientalists do not emphasize the “Islamic” angle quite as much, although they do sometimes suggest that a “fault line” running across the Sahel, with an expansive “Islam” to the north and “Christianity” to the south, is a reliable guide to conflict in many countries. But […]
We also aim to educate. Over the next few months, Allison Swank will commence a new weekly series on popular (and not-so-popular) films in the United States ‘about’ Africa. The focus will be on the idea of representations and how they contribute to the broader idea of Africa in the West. Let’s get the academic-speak […]
The Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, has put out a short PDF of critical responses to the late Edward Said’s Orientalism thesis. This is the quick view of the PDF from a close collaborator who studies Said’s work closely and knows the Institute:
If you know me, you know one of my favorite quotes: “I’ve never felt myself to belong to any establishment of any kind, any mainstream. I’m interested in mainstreams, I’m jealous of them, I sometimes, occasionally, envy people who belong to them — because certainly I don’t — but on the whole I think they’re […]
