Orientalism and Antiorientalism
Summary
The general goals of the course are:
- To question a system of knowledge based on the East/West binary opposition
- To examine the relationships between Orientalism, gender, class and race
- To analyze the creation of the predominant discourse and forms of knowledge, recognized as canonical, that emerged with imperialism (XIX-XX)
The specific goals of the course are:
- To know the work of the main intellectuals who have dealt with the topic of Orientalism and anti-Orientalism
- To value the specific importance of these formulations in the definition of an European and Western identity, as well as in the corresponding response from the East
- To read and critically analyze some significant texts, taking into account the historical context in which they are produced and the political and cultural phenomena that motivate them.
What Do We Study
We will make a historical genealogy of Orientalism (from the pictorial to the cinematographic, passing through the scientific and academic) as a tool used to construct the main discourse on Alterity. We will pay special attention to the Spanish/Catalan case, not dealt with by Said.
Which is the Line of Thought
The course employs mainly orientalist theory (Said), as well as its impact and critique.
Theoretical and Practical Approaches
Basic works on orientalism:
Lewis, Reina. Gendering Orientalism. Race, Femininity and Representation. Routledge, 1996.
Shaheen, Jack G. Reel bad Arabs: how Hollywood vilifies a people. Arris Books, 2003.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 1978. / Traducció de Josep Mauri: Orientalisme. Identitat, negació i violència. Eumo Editorial, 1991. / Traducción de M. L. Fuentes: Orientalismo. Random House Mondadori, 2004 (3ª ed.).
Said, Edward. “Orientalism Reconsidered”, Cultural Critique, No. 1. (Autumn, 1985), pp. 89-107. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=08824371%28198523%290%3A1%3C89%3AOR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
Specific readings:
Abu-Lughod, Lila. “‘Orientalism’ and Middle East Feminist Studies.” Feminist Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, 2001, pp. 101–13, https://doi.org/10.2307/3178451.
Aidi, Hisham. “The Interference of al-Andalus. Spain, Islam and the West”. Social Text 87, Vol. 24 No. 2, Summer 2006, 67-88.
Chuaqui, Rubén. “Orientalism, anti-orientalism, relativism”. Nepantla: Views from South, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2002, pp. 373-390 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/23951
Dabashi, Hamid. Post-Orientalism. Knowledge and Power in Time of Terror. Routledge, 2009.
Ernst, Carl W. “¿El occidente y el islam? Repensar el orientalismo y el occidentalismo”. Istor: revista de historia internacional, Año 10, Nº 38, 2009, pàgs. 123-139.
Fernández Parrilla, Gonzalo. “Disoriented Postcolonialities: With Edward Said in (the Labyrinth of) Al-Andalus”. Interventions, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2017.1403347
Kilito, Abdelfattah & Waïl S. Hassan (trad.) Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language. Syracuse University Press, 2008.
Renan, Ernest & Jamal al-Din al-Afghānī. “L'islamisme et la science”; Lettre au directeur du Journal des débats (18 mai 1883), et un appendice avec la réponse (pp. 61-68) de Renan à al-Afghānī, 1883.
Renan, Ernest. El islam y la ciencia. Con la respuesta de al-Afghani. http://www.istor.cide.edu/archivos/num_24/textos%20recobrados.pdf
Tahtawi, Rifa'ah Rafi', 1801-1873.; Newman, Daniel L., ed. An Imam in Paris : account of a stay in France by an Egyptian cleric, 1826-1831, Saqi, 2011.
Paradela, Nieves. El otro laberinto español: viajeros árabes a España entre el siglo XVII y 1936. Siglo XXI, 2005.