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Orientalism and ahistoricism
Malik, Kenan
http://kenanmalik.com/2021/05/02/orientalism-and-ahistoricism/Date Written: 2021-05-02 Year Published: 2021 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX24349 The ahistoricism of Orientalism leads Said to mimic the very discursive structures against which he polemicises. Said creates a “Western tradition” which runs in an unbroken line from the Ancient Greeks, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to modernism. It is a tradition which defines a coherent Western identity through a specific set of beliefs and values which remain in their essence unchanged through two millennia of European and Western history. This, of course, is the myth of “Western civilization” propagated by many an advocate of Western superiority. Subject Headings |