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Orientalism
’s Discourse
283
takes the form of acknowledged or unconscious influence
creative borrowing, or wholesale appropriation, the
movement of ideas and theories from one place to another
is both a fact of life and a useful . . . condition of
intellectual activity. (226)
Of course, the question of why theory travels in the first place is
related to the fact that it is a human activity. Since theory is bound
by the same rules and restrictions as any other worldly activity, it
fails to transcend its own limits as well as the “reality” it attempts to
inscribe. Similarly, the role of the theorist is marked by certain
restrictions in time and space. In the case of
Orientalism
, one might
say that the story of its origins begins in the late sixties at a time
when university campuses were mired in protests and the practice
of theory was in the throes of being reclaimed by its once
marginalized subjects. No longer “a product long associated with
Western discursive spaces,” theory would be refashioned as a tool
for “non-Western and feminist writers” to negotiate their identity
and “write back” to the metropolis (Clifford, 1989).
Yet, what came about was
not
a rupture or break in theory’s
form and content, but rather a shift in its focus and orientation.
Many of the scholars who came out of this period attempted to
reinscribe the Western tradition passed onto them by a long line of
dead white males. One such scholar was Edward W. Said, whose
life and work can be read as a classic case study for the modern
oppositional theorist. Born in Palestine, raised in colonial Egypt,
and educated in the United States, Said, throughout his academic
and political
3
career, played an active role in trying to redress the
mischaracterization of Arab and Asian cultures in the West.
Central to Said’s oppositional discourse in
Orientalism
and
subsequent books such as
Covering Islam
(1981) and
Culture and
3
From 1977 to 1991, Said was a member of the Palestinian National Council, a
legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization.