Reorienting Orientalism: Edward W. Said as a Gramscian Critic

Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) is one of the founding texts of postcolonial studies. In its reception the book's conceptualization and analysis of the operations of power have predominantly been seen as Foucauldian. This interpretation of Orientalism not only set a paradigm for the emerging field of postcolonial studies, it also sparked many critical reactions in which Said is being criticized for conceptualizing power as all pervasive, limiting the possibility of agency and resistance on the part of the colonized, and thus being trapped within the framework of Orientalism – a framework which he precisely intended to dissolve. Although Orientalism is clearly indebted to Foucault, most critics overlook the fact that Said's work also explicitly grapples with the ideas of Raymond Williams and Antonio Gramsci. In fact, a more careful analysis of Orientalism's conceptualization of power from a Gramscian perspective might reveal different dimensions of power and potentially unravel the paradox that Said is criticized for. Comparing Gramsci's writings on hegemony and its incorporation and elaboration in Orientalism, I want to investigate how the Gramscian heritage is translated into Said's critical practice and supplemented by the theories of Foucault. In this contribution I want to analyze how the incorporation of both these intertexts informs and structures Said's approach to cultural analysis. I will argue that reading Orientalism in a combined Foucauldian and Gramscian light offers a better understanding of Said's conceptualization of power, as it reevaluates the possibilities for resistance to the Orientalist framework and highlights the individual agency of intellectuals that Said believed in. Such a reevaluation tackles some vehement criticisms of Said and corrects the common sense view, which is rooted in a one-sided Foucauldian interpretation of Orientalism, that the field of postcolonial studies originated as an extension of that particular work, whereas it should be seen as a departure from Said.

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