page_title: Orientalism
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Orientalism / Background
caption_attribution_description: Wikipedia im Landtag – Bayern 17. bis 19. Juli 2012 in MünchenDieses Foto wurde im Rahmen des Projektes „Wikipedia im Landtag“ erstellt. Dieses Bild entstand anlässlich des Landtagsprojekts 2012 im Bayerischen Landtag. Der Chinesische Turm im Englischen Garten in München.
context_page_description: In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the West. In particular, Orientalist painting, depicting more specifically "the Middle East", was one of the many specialisms of 19th-century academic art, and the literature of Western countries took a similar interest in Oriental themes.
  Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term "Orientalism" to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, the West essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in service of imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior.
caption: Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) in the Englischer Garten, Munich, Germany: The initial structure was built 1789–1790.
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