Power and Knowledge In Edward Said's Orientalism Essay

Power and Knowledge In Edward Said's Orientalism - Essay Example Basically, E. Said proposed to view the western policy towards the East as colonial, imperial discourse created by means of manipulating knowledge - that is why the problem of interrelation between knowledge and power in Said's work is very important. All in all, Edward Said's views may be called unique because he is not only interested in politics from a scientific viewpoint - he, in fact, makes politics use the results of research, that is - scientific knowledge. He clearly shows that he is far from both politicization of thinking and ensuring the "neutrality" of scientists. His intellectual is politicized, yet it happens not because he makes science a servant of politics, but - and this is important for the understanding of the scholar's system of beliefs - because politics for Said is the ally of science as far as the freedom of thinking and autonomy of scientific activity are concerned. The core of E. Said's approach is to de-crown the myth of Orientalism being a homogenous theory based on clearly defined concepts. According to him, Orientalism "is a style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and (most of the time) 'the Occident'. Thus a very large mass of writers, among who are poet, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, 'mind', destiny, and so on". Said interprets events rather than openly states his opinion, and this certainly correlates with "the death of the author" theory proclaimed by post-modernism. The minimised role of author ensures the collision and interrelation between different, often polar opinions, in E. Said's Orientalism; and it is a great step towards "polylogic" knowledge as opposed to monologic. For Said, monologic knowledge is associated, above all, with the West, but at the same time with the Eastern counter-attack against this monologism using the same monologic principles. That is why, the western expansion towards the East, which is obviously the embodiment of power and domination, is inseparable from knowledge. Said proves that metaphysically, comprehension (the process of intellectual capturing) is related to occupation, and personal enrichment in the form of becoming more open-minded and widening of one's scope - to imperialistic ambitions of the West. My contention is that Orientalism is fundamentally a political doctrine willed over the Orient because the Orient was weaker than the West, which elided the Orient's difference with its weakness. . . . As a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge (Said 1995, p. 204) It is not a coincidence that we mentioned Said's idea about the interrelations between science and politics. In his Orientalism, science, and at the first place the science that serves political needs of the country, is associated with the West, same as power. He therefore attempts to discover a complicated system of ties existing between science (knowledge) and power, and to show to what extent power may need knowledge, and at the same time to what extent knowledge may be a form of power. This

Carolingian Empire During The Middle Ages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Carolingian Empire During The Middle Ages - Essay Example Accordingly, this brief essay will attempt to consider the overall effects that the Carolingian Empire had o formulating the basic understandings of culture and statehood that eventually developed into our modern interpretation of France as it has existed for the past 1200 years. One of the preeminent problems with pre-Middle Ages Europe was that it was a highly tribalized and lacked any type of cohesion or unity after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The power vacuum that was created caused a litany of tribes to stake out territorial claims throughout the continent and beyond and seek to raise a form of society and individualized culture from out of these constructs.1 It was not until Charlemagne came long that a sense of cohesion was begun to be implemented by right of conquest within the tribes that now constitute modern day France. The dawn of the Carolingian Empire was of paramount importance to the formulation of a modern day understanding of France due to the fact that Charle magne and his progenitors were able to incorporate the use of a common language and religion among the areas and tribes they conquered. As any student of history knows, these two factors alone are powerful forms of congealing a given area into the idea that nationhood/statehood. In this way, Charlemagne, as one of the first actions of the Carolingian Empire, sought to congeal his grip on the territories in and around modern day France. One of these ways was to ensure that the encroachment of the Muslim Moors was stopped at the Battle of Tours. This event in and of itself was a massive victory for the definition of Christianity and statehood of the Frankish peoples. With respect to the subsequent Carolingian Renaissance, as historians have called it, the name itself is a bit of misnomer due to the fact that the Carolingian Renaissance did not have the far reaching societal effects that later European renaissances would have. Rather, the Carolingian Renaissance was almost entirely pre dicated on a restoration of the glory of the Roman Empire.2 Although this in itself was not necessarily a bad end to strive towards, the effect of the renaissance on enlightening the populace, changing social mores/norms, and giving way to higher and greater interpretation of art was severely constricted.3 The artistic developments during the period include the literary development of the Vulgate Bible, the development of Romanesque art and the illuminated manuscripts that were indicative of Byzantine iconoclasts (such as â€Å"Christ in Majesty† from the Aberdeen Bestiary), and the further development of distinctly Pre-Romanesque architecture in Europe (such as The Palatine Chapel in Aachen).4 What these three things have in common is the fact that each of them is merely a development of something that had previously existed; rather than a new interpretation of an old theme. In this way, the actual nature of the â€Å"Carolingian Renaissance† has been called into ques tion as compared with the later fuller renaissances that took place within Europe. Rather than seeking to propagate new styles and new ideas, the Carolingian Renaissance seemed to point backwards to a time of European history that was long gone yet still remembered fondly. Although the Carolingian Empire was a key determinate in establishing the idea of modern statehood within Europe, one could argue that as compared to the artistic expression and sociological