Essay on Orientalism
The two readings, Franz Fanon’s essay “The Lived Experience of the Black Man” and Zeynep Celik’s essay “Speaking back to Orientalist Discourse” tell much about orientalism and its impact on colonialism. Zeynep Celik finds the link between orientalism and colonialism, while Franz Fanon’s key message in his essay “The Lived Experience of the Black Man” from Black Skin, White Masks is to reflect the impact of colonialism on black people.
Question: What ideas about orientalism are shared by Franz Fanon and Zeynep Celik in their essays?
Franz Fanon’s key message in his essay “The Lived Experience of the Black Man” from Black Skin, White Masks is to reflect the impact of colonialism on black people. He deals with his personal experience of being “French” in order to highlight the impact of the so-called systemic racism that makes his personality as an “Other” against the dominant culture. The author is focused on analysis of psychological damage caused by colonial rules and conditions. Fanon writes, “I came into this world anxious to uncover the meaning of things, my soul desirous to be at the origin of the world, and here I am an object among other objects.”1 The author places emphasis on segregation of black people in the United States. For Fanon, the lived experience of the black man in society can be explained by conflict relationships with white people. Zeynep Celik finds the link between orientalism and colonialism. From philosophical point of view, orientalism places emphasis on the distinction between East and West. Orientalism has become part of the political culture of the West. In the essay, the author explores orientalism discourse through Osman Hamdi’s culture. He states that the exposure of Ottoman Empire to the West soon became “the history of Westernization.”2 Besides, the author believes that colonizers enhanced their power to demonstrate the diversity in their society through culture, highlighting the role of tolerance toward the colonized. In general, Both Fanon and Celik are focused on providing a comprehensive analysis of the key aspects of orientalism discourse in the context of colonialism.
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