[Buddha-l] Said/Orientalism

[Jens Schlieter]

[snip]

>  Said argues that there is a strong tendency
> for Westerners to project their fantasies and desires on to
> everything "Oriental", and in doing so, they fail to see what is
> really there. It would be difficult to imagine a more striking
> example of this phenomenon than the one we are now discussing.
> - Curt
>
Another interesting example for this general - not only Western attitude 
- is Said himself:
As a motto one can find in his book [p.1] a quotation attributed to Marx 
("18th Brumaire ..."): "They cannot represent themselves, they must be 
represented". This citation is used by Said to justify his claim that 
the Western attitude towards the Orient was: 'they do - and can - not 
represent themselves' (Orientalism, p. 21).

Yet Marx just said in relation to French farmers: They are individuals, 
not a class, though not able to 'stand in [or: deputize] for 
themselves': ["Insofern ein nur lokaler Zusammenhang unter den 
Parzellenbauern besteht, [...] bilden sie keine Klasse. Sie sind daher 
unfähig, ihr Klasseninteresse im eigenen Namen, sei es durch ein 
Parlament [...] geltend zu machen. Sie können sich nicht vertreten, sie 
müssen vertreten werden" (VII. 198)].

O.k., there is an ambivalence in the word 'represent'/'vertreten'. But I 
would expect someone dealing with representations that are guided by 
certain motives to be more aware of the general fact of interpretation...


Greetings,

Jens Schlieter


Indology, Bonn