Orientalism And Dualism In John Macleod's Beginning Postcolonialism

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It indicates that if it is the Other, it should not be understood, defined and explained. Nevertheless, the Other exists in a place that is opposite to the self and is named by the self. To put it another way, this Otherness is a creation for marginalising a certain group. Thus, when repeatedly addressing the Orient as the Other of the Occident, it implies that the Occident is greater and superior. John MacLeod also explores this division in Beginning Postcolonialism. He argues that “[f]undamental to the view of the world fashioned by Orientalism is the binary division it makes between the Orient and the Occident” (49). The dualism exists is the cause that the presence of the Orient is able to “define Europe (or the West) as [the Orient’s] contrasting image, idea, personality, experience” (Said 1-2). Consequently, the existence of the Orient has its necessity for the Occident. MacLeod addresses that “[t]he Orient is conceived as being everything that the West is not, its ‘alter ego’. Each is assumed to exist in position to the [O]ther(O capital or not?), …show more content…

in V. G. Kiernan 52). As a day-dream, it is fictional and fabricated; however, while everyone in Europe has the day-dream that nearly the same, the situation would be entirely different. An individual’s day-dream would deem to be a hallucination; however, a collective day-dream can make it look like a reality. That is, even it is a lie, by repeating often enough, it will be accepted as truth in the end. This acceptance is not merely happening to the Occident, but also in the Orient. Be subject to the power of the West, the East cannot refuse to accept this knowledge. This knowledge would constantly be reinforced by power, and power makes the Occident has the strength to force the Orient to submit itself. Indeed, resemble what McLeod points out that “knowledge and power always work together”

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