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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 experiences, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. In Orientalism, Edward Said looks at the way that Lane’s accounts draw on Orientalist discourse and present an essentialized version of Egypt and Islam that has little to do with the modern (c. 1830s) Egyptians he purports to discuss.
Edward William Lane Quotes in Orientalism
The Orientalism quotes below are all either spoken by Edward William Lane or refer to Edward William Lane . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2, Part 3
Quotes
Unlike [others], Lane was able to submerge himself amongst the natives, to live as they did, to conform to their habits […]. Lest that imply Lane’s having lost his objectivity, he goes on to say that he conformed only to the words […] of the Koran, and that he was always aware of his difference from an essentially alien culture. Thus while one portion of Lane’s identity floats easily in an unsuspecting Muslim sea, a submerged part retains its secret European power, to comment on, acquire, possess everything around it.
The Orientalist can imitate the Orient without the opposite being true. What he says about the Orient is therefore to be understood as a description obtained in a one-way exchange: as they spoke and behaved, he observed and wrote down. […] And what he wrote was intended as useful knowledge, not for them, but for Europe and its various disseminative institutions.
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Edward William Lane Quotes in Orientalism
The Orientalism quotes below are all either spoken by Edward William Lane or refer to Edward William Lane . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2, Part 3
Quotes
Unlike [others], Lane was able to submerge himself amongst the natives, to live as they did, to conform to their habits […]. Lest that imply Lane’s having lost his objectivity, he goes on to say that he conformed only to the words […] of the Koran, and that he was always aware of his difference from an essentially alien culture. Thus while one portion of Lane’s identity floats easily in an unsuspecting Muslim sea, a submerged part retains its secret European power, to comment on, acquire, possess everything around it.
The Orientalist can imitate the Orient without the opposite being true. What he says about the Orient is therefore to be understood as a description obtained in a one-way exchange: as they spoke and behaved, he observed and wrote down. […] And what he wrote was intended as useful knowledge, not for them, but for Europe and its various disseminative institutions.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
