Reassessing Orientalism

<p>Orientalism as a concept was first applied to Western colonial views of the East. Subsequently different types of orientalism were discovered but the premise was that these took their lead from Western-style orientalism applying it in different circumstances. This book on the other hand argues that the diffusion of interpretations and techniques in orientalism was not uni-directional and that the different orientologies – Western Soviet and oriental orientologies – were interlocked in such a way that a change in any one of them affected the others; that the different orientologies did not develop in isolation from each other; and that importantly those being orientalised were active not passive players in shaping how the views of themselves were developed.</p>