Orientalism Character Analysis

Edward Said

The author of Orientalism, Edward Said was a 20th-century Palestinian American literary scholar and cultural critic who taught at Columbia University in New York City. Troubled by the representations of the so-called Orient—where… read analysis of Edward Said

Orientalists

The Orientalist is a character type in Oriental discourse. An Orientalist is, broadly speaking, any person who subscribes to Orientalist discourse. More specifically, however, Orientalists are usually people with special expertise in the area… read analysis of Orientalists

Oriental Subject

The Oriental subject is a character type in Orientalist discourse. Oriental subjects are two things at once. On the one hand, they are real human beings who live in the Near East (Egypt, Palestine… read analysis of Oriental Subject

Hamilton Gibb

Hamilton Gibb was a 20th-century historian and Orientalist, born in Egypt and educated in Scotland and England, who ended his career in the United States. As an Orientalist, the initial focus of Gibb’s studies… read analysis of Hamilton Gibb

White Man

The White Man is a character type that appears frequently in the works of British poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling. The White Man is strongly associated with the British citizen. Like the Orientalist (there… read analysis of White Man

Napoleon

Napoleon was a French military officer and politician who rose to prominence following the French Revolution, after which he became the first leader of the French Republic. Famed for his military powers, Napoleon led a… read analysis of Napoleon

Silvestre de Sacy

Silvestre de Sacy was a French nobleman, diplomat, and Orientalist who studied Semitic languages before deciding to stake his career on Orientalism, which was a growing field in the late 18th century. Sacy’s contributions to… read analysis of Silvestre de Sacy

Louis Massignon

Louis Massignon was a 20th-century French Orientalist and scholar of Islam. Although he was a devout Catholic and although he was trained long after Orientalist discourse had ossified its representation of Oriental subjects (and more… read analysis of Louis Massignon

Gustave Grunebaum

Gustave Grunebaum was a 20th-century Austrian Orientalist who moved to the United States in the 1930s to escape the Nazis. His positions at the University of Chicago and UCLA gave him clout in post-war American… read analysis of Gustave Grunebaum

William Jones

William Jones was an English linguist, polymath, and colonial administrator in India in the late 18th century. To many, Jones is the undisputed founder of Orientalism. For Said, he is the undisputed founder of… read analysis of William Jones

Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan was an 19th-century French Orientalist who studied Semitic languages and the history of Christianity and the Bible. Belonging to the generation of scholarship after Sacy, Renan was an important intellectual figure in… read analysis of Ernest Renan

T. E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence was a 19th-century British military officer, diplomat, and writer. A student of history and an archeologist, Lawrence’s academic career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, during which he served… read analysis of T. E. Lawrence

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was a 19th-century French novelist who traveled extensively in Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and Lebanon between 1849 and 1850. Deeply influenced both by the latent Orientalism in 19th century French culture and also by… read analysis of Gustave Flaubert

Richard Francis Burton

Richard Francis Burton was a 19th-century British explorer, adventurer, and writer, and military officer. Although he studied Arabic formally, Burton was a perpetual outsider who was expelled from university as a disciplinary action before he… read analysis of Richard Francis Burton

Arthur James Balfour

Arthur James Balfour was a British colonial administrator and politician who lived in from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries. A staunch proponent of British colonial authority and apologist for British colonial projects, Balfour… read analysis of Arthur James Balfour

Lord Cromer

Evelyn Baring, Lord Cromer, was a British statesman and colonial administrator who lived in the last 19th and early 20th centuries. Cromer initially served the British colonial administration in India and later became the controller-general… read analysis of Lord Cromer

Edward William Lane

Edward William Lane was a 19th-century Orientalist whose training was in the Arabic language. In his youth, Lane spent two years traveling in Egypt. He is best known for the book he wrote about those… read analysis of Edward William Lane

Françoise-René de Chateaubriand

Françoise-René de Chateaubriand was a French politician, diplomat, and writer who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As a lay (that is, non-academic) Orientalist, Chateaubriand’s contribution lies in the account he wrote… read analysis of Françoise-René de Chateaubriand

Alphonse Lamartine

Alphonse Lamartine was a French politician and writer of the 19th century. He wrote an account of his travels in the Orient—modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Syria—in the 1830s. For Said in Orientalism… read analysis of Alphonse Lamartine

Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval was a 19th-century French writer. Like Flaubert, Nerval’s contributions to Orientalist discourse include an account of a trip to Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey (following a nervous breakdown) in 1842 and 1843… read analysis of Gérard de Nerval

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier

A French mathematician, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier was one of the scientists and scholars Napoleon brought along on his Egyptian expedition in 1798. Fourier subsequently became the secretary of the Institut d’Égypte (now known as the Egyptian… read analysis of Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier

Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger was an American diplomat of the 20th century. Edward Said offers Kissinger as an example of contemporary Orientalism, in which Orientalist discourse has become almost wholly subsumed by the political sciences and governmental… read analysis of Henry Kissinger

Maurice Barrès

Maurice Barrès was a French philosopher and writer who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He published an account of his travels in Egypt in the early 20th century. Said uses Barrès’s… read analysis of Maurice Barrès

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was German philosopher and political theorist of the 19th century. Although his intellectual and philosophical work, focused mainly on class conflict, lie outside the purview of Orientalism, his writings about the fate of… read analysis of Karl Marx

Minor Characters

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was a 19th-century British writer who was born in India and whose childhood in the British Orient influenced his work. In Orientalism, Said only discusses Kipling’s work briefly, mainly finding Kipling useful to his analysis for Kipling’s use of the White Man character type.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand de Lesseps was a 19th-century French diplomat and developer who oversaw the construction of the Suez Canal, a project that occupied him from 1854-1869.

Orientalism

Edward W. Said

Orientalism Characters