Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :Orientalism
One ought never to assume that the structure of Orientalism is nothing more than a structure of lies or of myths which, were the truth about them to be told, would simply blow away[….]Orientalism, therefore, is not an airy European fantasy about the Orient, but a created body of theory and practice in which, for many generations, there has been a considerable material investment. Continued investment made Orientalism, as a system of knowledge about the Orient, an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness, just as that same investment multiplied—indeed, made truly productive—the statements proliferating out from Orientalism into the general culture.
We don't think we need to tell you what this is, but we will anyway: this is the definition of Orientalism. It's also the central concept that really made poco studies take off as a theoretical field. And by the way, it's a great quote for showing people what a smarty-pants you are.
Here's basically what Said is saying: this whole thing called Orientalism isn't what you think it is. It's not about some fairy tale of the Far East with a bunch of flying carpets. It's hardcore. We're talking about Western professors, politicians, writers, thinkers—smart, powerful people—who go around molding minds and societies based on some wacked-out idea of what the "'Orient"' is.
And not just that: everyone's implicated because everyone's part of the Orientalist system, even people who are natives to a country and are just working to get by in some colonial bureaucratic office. That's because Orientalism is a "'system of knowledge,"' aka it's what you accept already, believing you "'know"' it without realizing how that knowledge has been constructed.
Call it bias, prejudice, stereotype, discrimination: they're all part of this "'system,"' and it's kind of inescapable. Unless you're someone like Edward Said, of course.
Quote :The World, the Text, and the Critic
What I am criticizing is two particular assumptions. There is first the almost unconsciously held ideological assumption that the Eurocentric model for the humanities actually represents a natural and proper subject matter for the humanistic scholar. Its authority comes not only from the orthodox canon of literary monuments handed down through the generations, but also from the way this continuity reproduces the filial continuity of the chain of biological procreation. What we then have is a substitution of one sort of order for another, in the process of which everything that is nonhumanistic and nonliterary and non-European is deposited outside the structure[….]Second is the assumption that the principal relationships in the study of literature—those I have identified as based on representation—ought to obliterate the traces of other relationships within literary structures that are based principally upon acquisition and appropriation.
So here's the deal. Why are the humanities all about studying dead, white guys? That's pretty much what Said wants to know. He's pointing out that anything other than that stuff just doesn't get the same kind of play as these Euro dudes.
What's more, all this respect these guys are getting comes from the fact that their ideas keep getting passed down from generation to generation, like some kind of precious family heirloom. Literary scholars don't help either because all they do is study this stuff as if it speaks for civilized Western culture, instead of looking at how these "'classics"' or the literary "'canon"' actually came about through a whole lot of imperial power and domination over other countries and cultures.
Said's basically slapping all the literary bigwigs around and refocusing our attention on all the stuff that gets left out of the "'humanities"' and "'literary studies."' And that's way important because this (1983) is right around the time that everyone starts to question the whole point of studying those dead, white guys.
After all, wouldn't it be more fair, more reflective of reality, if we started to read stuff written by "'Other"' people and hear their sides of the story? Or at least look at how these dead, white guys' ideas and books came about (mostly through the conquest of "'Other"' cultures)?
For example, could you really imagine The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (or the one by Disney) without India? Oh wait—you can? See, that's why we need postcolonial theory!