Timothy Mitchell - Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order
Timothy Mitchell – Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order (1989)
It is no longer unusual to suggeste that the construction of the colonial order is related to the eloboration of modern forms of representation and knowledge
( This has been examined by critique of Orientalism
Best known analysis on Orientalism: Edward Said
Orientalist world is defined by: 1. It is understood as the product of unchanging racial / cultural essences/ characteristics 2. These characteristics are always the opposite of the West (passive/ active, static/ mobile, emotional/ rational, chaotic/ ordered) 3. Oriental ismarked by fundamental absences (of movement, reason, order, meaning)
( In terms of these characteristics the colonial world can be mastered
19th century image of the Orient was constructed in Oriental studies, romantic novels, colonial administrations and world exhibitions
1889: Exposition Universelle in Paris
( To demonstrate French commercial and imperial power
The new apparatus of representation (world exhibiotions) gave a central place to representation of the non-Western world
( This construction of ‘the other’ was important to manufacture national indentity and imperial purpose
What Mitchell speaks about in first half of article: Examines the distinctiveness of the modern representational order exemplified by the world exhibition
( What Arab writers found in the West was the world itself being ordered up as an endless exhibition. This world-as-exhibiotion was a place where the artificial, the model and the plan were employed tot generate an unprecedented effect of order and certainty
What Mitchell speaks about in second half of article: Examines the connection between the world-as-exhibition and Orientalism through reading of European travel accounts of 19th century Middle-East
La rue du Caire
Four members of the Egyptian delegation went to the world exhibition in Paris and were disgusted by what they saw when they entered the
It is no longer unusual to suggeste that the construction of the colonial order is related to the eloboration of modern forms of representation and knowledge
( This has been examined by critique of Orientalism
Best known analysis on Orientalism: Edward Said
Orientalist world is defined by: 1. It is understood as the product of unchanging racial / cultural essences/ characteristics 2. These characteristics are always the opposite of the West (passive/ active, static/ mobile, emotional/ rational, chaotic/ ordered) 3. Oriental ismarked by fundamental absences (of movement, reason, order, meaning)
( In terms of these characteristics the colonial world can be mastered
19th century image of the Orient was constructed in Oriental studies, romantic novels, colonial administrations and world exhibitions
1889: Exposition Universelle in Paris
( To demonstrate French commercial and imperial power
The new apparatus of representation (world exhibiotions) gave a central place to representation of the non-Western world
( This construction of ‘the other’ was important to manufacture national indentity and imperial purpose
What Mitchell speaks about in first half of article: Examines the distinctiveness of the modern representational order exemplified by the world exhibition
( What Arab writers found in the West was the world itself being ordered up as an endless exhibition. This world-as-exhibiotion was a place where the artificial, the model and the plan were employed tot generate an unprecedented effect of order and certainty
What Mitchell speaks about in second half of article: Examines the connection between the world-as-exhibition and Orientalism through reading of European travel accounts of 19th century Middle-East
La rue du Caire
Four members of the Egyptian delegation went to the world exhibition in Paris and were disgusted by what they saw when they entered the