Latent and Manifest Orientalism as Seen by Edward Said and his Critics

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy Beyond Occidental Tradition grade: 1.0 University of Vienna (Institut für Philosophie) course: Seminar Texte zur postkolonialen Theorie language: English abstract: Edward Said (1935-2003) has been widely praised as a leading thinker of post-colonialismand even as one of its founding figures. Moreover he became one of the most widely knownand controversial intellectuals in the world during his lifetime (Ashcroft 2009 1). His bestknown book Orientalism (1978) is a milestone in post-colonial theory and was one of thefirst examples for combining French critical theory with Anglophone cultural and textualtradition (cf. Castro Varela 2005 31). It actually paved the way for differentiating criticalPostcolonial Studies from the earlier Commonwealth Literary Studies with their uncriticalcontinuation of colonial prejudices (cf. ibid 23). Even Daniel Varisco (2007) who argues fora rather critical view of Said's work concedes that Said's book stimulated a necessary andvaluable debate among scholars who study the Middle East Islam and colonial history.(Varisco 2007 XII).Since a 10-page term paper could never do justice to a literary and scientific masterpiece likeOrientalism this paper picks out just a small detail of its rich content: In the third and lastchapter of Orientalism Said introduces a distinction between two forms of Orientalismlatent and manifest. The meaning of this dichotomy does not reveal its full significance atfirst reading. What exactly did Said have in mind by using this terminology - perhapsunconsciously in addition to what he writes about it on some 20 pages of his book?Several scholars have commented on this distinction and its significance for Said's work. Thispaper will build on that material and attempt to analyze and summarize what can be foundout about the dichotomy. Particular interest will be devoted to the philosophical roots Saidwa