The video on Edward Said and Orientalism provided many important general points about Orientalism, much of which Tina addressed on her blog, but as I was watching it I kept trying to relate it to Sugar Street. In general, Sugar Street gives the Western reader a portrayal of the Arab/Oriental world to contrast with or call into question the view we have gotten from news and popular culture because of the systematic discourse of Orientalism.
I remembered this exchange as I watched the video on Edward Said and Orientalism, particularly when Said made the point that stereotyping is something that has been going on as long as different groups of humanity have been in contact with one another. Said identified Orientalism as being more formal than general stereotyping because it is presented as objective knowledge, and then throughout the video shows how this has been used and perpetuated for political purposes. With the exchange between Kamal and Riyad, although it is not Orientalism, Mahfouz is able to make a point of similar to that made by Said about Orientalism (and the US's view of the Arab/Islamic world in particular), that Riyad may view the expulsion of Makram from the Wafd party as a political move against the Copts because he feels this is how the Muslims would view it.
Something else that I really appreciated was Said's discussion about Gramsei's philosophies. He said that the most interesting of the human tasks is to compile an inventory of the infinity of traces that history has left on us. This "history" includes our history from our nation, from our family, and from tradition, all three of which I see playing a part in the generations of Sugar Street. Said sees the purpose of this task as to understand our personal history in terms of everyone else's, and not to say, "my history is better/worse than yours." The great goal of this task, then, is to become someone else, to "transform yourself from a unitary identity into an identity that includes "the other" without suppressing the difference" (between yourself and "the other").
That's a really powerful idea, and a way I think Said is offering to beat Orientalism on a individual level that could eventually eradicate it on a larger scale in society. Said relates this process to writing and comparative literature, arguing that works coming from different traditions and cultures should be viewed not as being better or worse than one another, but "existing as contrapuntal lines in a great composition by which difference is respected and understood without coercion."
Since literature is one way that the Orientalism view has been proliferated and perpetuated, it is important for Western readers to view literature in this way- as a "great composition" that includes writings from all kinds of traditions, not just the Western. Most Western-educated people have really only been exposed to works by Western authors with a Western view, and thus are missing out on a large part of this "great composition." Which is why it is important to read books like Sugar Street and the others we have read in this class, in order to expand our view of the world (and, in many ways, correct it) and also to help us understand our identity in terms of everyone else's, to transform from a unitary identity into one that includes "the other" without suppressing difference.
It seemed to him that all the different ethnic groups into which humanity was divided were acting out an ironic farce that would have a dreadful ending. (pg 229 in Sugar Street)This is something Kamal thinks as he is discussing the implications of the political figure Makram losing power in the Wafd party with his friend Riyad. Makram, like Riyad, is part of the Coptic community, and Riyad sees his fall from power as a fall for all the Copts, to which Kamal objects by saying "Makram is not all the Coptic Christians, and the Copts aren't Makram... the problem ceases to exist if you think of Makram as a politician and not as the entire Coptic community." To which Riyad responds, "Do the Muslims themselves think of him merely as a politician?" (229).
I remembered this exchange as I watched the video on Edward Said and Orientalism, particularly when Said made the point that stereotyping is something that has been going on as long as different groups of humanity have been in contact with one another. Said identified Orientalism as being more formal than general stereotyping because it is presented as objective knowledge, and then throughout the video shows how this has been used and perpetuated for political purposes. With the exchange between Kamal and Riyad, although it is not Orientalism, Mahfouz is able to make a point of similar to that made by Said about Orientalism (and the US's view of the Arab/Islamic world in particular), that Riyad may view the expulsion of Makram from the Wafd party as a political move against the Copts because he feels this is how the Muslims would view it.
Something else that I really appreciated was Said's discussion about Gramsei's philosophies. He said that the most interesting of the human tasks is to compile an inventory of the infinity of traces that history has left on us. This "history" includes our history from our nation, from our family, and from tradition, all three of which I see playing a part in the generations of Sugar Street. Said sees the purpose of this task as to understand our personal history in terms of everyone else's, and not to say, "my history is better/worse than yours." The great goal of this task, then, is to become someone else, to "transform yourself from a unitary identity into an identity that includes "the other" without suppressing the difference" (between yourself and "the other").
That's a really powerful idea, and a way I think Said is offering to beat Orientalism on a individual level that could eventually eradicate it on a larger scale in society. Said relates this process to writing and comparative literature, arguing that works coming from different traditions and cultures should be viewed not as being better or worse than one another, but "existing as contrapuntal lines in a great composition by which difference is respected and understood without coercion."
Since literature is one way that the Orientalism view has been proliferated and perpetuated, it is important for Western readers to view literature in this way- as a "great composition" that includes writings from all kinds of traditions, not just the Western. Most Western-educated people have really only been exposed to works by Western authors with a Western view, and thus are missing out on a large part of this "great composition." Which is why it is important to read books like Sugar Street and the others we have read in this class, in order to expand our view of the world (and, in many ways, correct it) and also to help us understand our identity in terms of everyone else's, to transform from a unitary identity into one that includes "the other" without suppressing difference.
posted by Kate Merwald at 1:26 PM
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