Occidentalism
A brief summary of
“Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism” by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
A brief summary of
“Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism” by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
The authors, through their book: “Occidentalism: A history of Anti-Westernism” tried to give explanation to anti-western attitudes. The book discusses an disturbing thinking that imagines the West to be devoid of any virtues, believes that it is the symbol of sins and corruptions and must be destroyed. The point is that the term “Occidentalism” itself doesn’t refer to such a meaning. The term Occidentalism is used to refer to images of ‘The West’ in one of two main ways: a) stereotyped and sometimes dehumanizing views on the Western world, including Europe and the English-speaking world; and b), ideologies or visions of the West developed in either the West or non-West world.
The view of “The West more than others” has been argued throughout the book and author, Ian Buruma had emphasized it during his interview for Tehran Review in 2011, stated that:
… Avishai Margalit and I argued in our book, Occidentalism, is the demonic idea of Western depravity actually originated in the West itself, specifically in 19th century Germany, as well as Russia. Japanese ultra-nationalists in the 1920s and 30s, who were in fact much influenced by the West, particularly by German ideas about the West, often became Occidentalists… (Nekuee. S., & Abedi. E., 2011)
Furthermore, the authors used the word Occidentalism to describe the phenomenon. A phenomenon as it has explained by authors in the pages 6-7, accordingly:
… The dehumanising picture of the west painted by its enemies is what we have called Occidentalism. It is our intention in this book to examine this cluster of prejudices and trace their historical roots. That they cannot be explained simply as a peculiar Islamic problem is clear. Much has gone terrible wrong in the
“Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism” by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
A brief summary of
“Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism” by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
The authors, through their book: “Occidentalism: A history of Anti-Westernism” tried to give explanation to anti-western attitudes. The book discusses an disturbing thinking that imagines the West to be devoid of any virtues, believes that it is the symbol of sins and corruptions and must be destroyed. The point is that the term “Occidentalism” itself doesn’t refer to such a meaning. The term Occidentalism is used to refer to images of ‘The West’ in one of two main ways: a) stereotyped and sometimes dehumanizing views on the Western world, including Europe and the English-speaking world; and b), ideologies or visions of the West developed in either the West or non-West world.
The view of “The West more than others” has been argued throughout the book and author, Ian Buruma had emphasized it during his interview for Tehran Review in 2011, stated that:
… Avishai Margalit and I argued in our book, Occidentalism, is the demonic idea of Western depravity actually originated in the West itself, specifically in 19th century Germany, as well as Russia. Japanese ultra-nationalists in the 1920s and 30s, who were in fact much influenced by the West, particularly by German ideas about the West, often became Occidentalists… (Nekuee. S., & Abedi. E., 2011)
Furthermore, the authors used the word Occidentalism to describe the phenomenon. A phenomenon as it has explained by authors in the pages 6-7, accordingly:
… The dehumanising picture of the west painted by its enemies is what we have called Occidentalism. It is our intention in this book to examine this cluster of prejudices and trace their historical roots. That they cannot be explained simply as a peculiar Islamic problem is clear. Much has gone terrible wrong in the
References: Ajami. F., (2004, April). Transcript of an Interview on Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/terrorism/occidentalism-west-eyes-its-enemies/p6987 Buruma. I., & Margalit. A. (2004). Occidentalism: A short history of anti-westernism. Bercker, Germany. Atlantic Books Nekuee. S., & Abedi. E. (2011, April). An Interview with Ian Buruma on Occidentalism: The Enemy of the West. Tehran Review, News, Views and Analysis. Retrieved from http://tehranreview.net/articles/8502#.UuImWWSmoy4