Imaginary Orient

Imaginary Orient


Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian American literary theorist, cultural critic, political activist, and an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is a founding figure in postcolonial theory. He creates theoretical and philosophical frame works in social sciences and literature and applied to visual and within culture, so he is talking about the being orient, Asia and more emphasized on middle east. In his framework representation of the orient is in art, movie and literature. Western representation created by the west for the west, which is more about western point of view rather than reality of orient. So in said frameworks colonization and domination are playing a big role. What he is saying by that is because of colonization and domination; it was more about western rather than the actual people living in Middle East. Said said, constructions of orient are in opposition what we consider west to be like, civilized, modern and enlighten society in opposition of uncivilized, uncultured and inferior.

The movie (300) is a degrading portrayal of ancient Persians. The film tries to portray them as a monstrous and hostile people. It is not the first time Hollywood has created a portrayal that offends Iranians, and the film must be countered accordingly.Frank Miller, the author of the original graphic novel, has knowingly manipulated the realities and has demonstrated his shallow understanding of these actual 'histories'.

300 tries to promote a long-outdated belief that to be non-Greek means to be barbarian. It is an ethnocentric premise that helped stroke the war depicted in the film.
300 portrays the Persian King Xerxes and his Ambassador as barbaric rulers and, even more erroneously, as men of African origin. The portrayal of non-Europeans as evil demonstrates the racist underpinnings of the film. Its depiction of black people as barbaric should offend anyone of African heritage.

It was interesting what Bernie Heidkamp mentioned about this movie and compared it to what Said concerned.
“I find Said’s work most compelling when he focused on the use of literature and art in the production of knowledge and the maintenance of Western popular assumptions about the Orient. 300 could function as Exhibit A in this regard. The Greek (rational, well-organized, frequently bathed, and white) and Persian (prone to magic, a horde, much less frequently bathed, non-white) ethnic and cultural stereotypes are so blatantly offensive that they come very near subverting themselves. There were parts of the film that really made me wonder if the filmmakers were indeed winking at the audience, such as the Spartans’ “Before we sally forth in defense of reason, let’s consult the Oracle!” bit, but I don’t think so. I find it interesting that quite a few people I’ve spoken to have criticized the movie’s representation of the Persians in terms that that I can only describe as Saidian. That is, they recognize the role that popular culture plays in reinforcing assumptions about the other, and the way that these assumptions service certain political ideologies. The fact that some tech dudes at a party, who had never heard of Edward Said, were casually pointing these things out to me between tequila shots can, I think, be seen as a victory for the better parts of Said’s work.”
I think western existence is offensive to most in the Middle East. If Middle-Eastern soldiers had come to your country and turned it into rubble, Middle-Eastern existence would be offensive to you, too.


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http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=2975&sectionid=3510301

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E5D6153DF935A1575AC0A9659C8B63