Imagined geographies

In his book Orientalism, Edward Said argued that Western culture had produced a view of the "Orient" based on a particular imagination, popularized through academic Oriental studies, travel writing, anthropology and a colonial view of the Orient. This imagination included painting the orient as feminine- however, Said's view on the gendered nature has been criticized by other scholars due to a limited exploration of the construct. At a 1993 lecture located at York University, Toronto, Canada, Said stressed the role culture plays in Orientalism-based imperialism and colonialism. By differentiating and elevating a national culture over another a validating process of "othering" is undertaken. This process underlies imagined geographies such as orientalism as it creates a set of preconceived notions for self-serving purposes. In constructing itself as superior, the imperial force or colonizing agent is able to justify its actions as somehow necessary or beneficial to the "other". It is in this sense that Orientalism may be reinforced in cultural texts such as art, film, literature, music, etc. where one-dimensional and often backwards constructions prevail. A prime source of cinematic examples is the documentary-film Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. The film demonstrates the process of orientalism centric "othering" within Western films from the silent era to modern classics such as Disney's Aladdin. In Orientalism, Said says that Orientalism is an imagined geography because a) Europeans created one culture for the entirety of the 'Orient', and b) the 'Orient' was defined by text and not by the 'Orient'. ==Theory==

Said was heavily influenced by French philosopher Michel Foucault, and those who have developed the theory of imagined geographies have linked these together. Foucault states that power and knowledge are always intertwined. Said then developed an idea of a relationship between power and descriptions. Imagined geographies are thus seen as a tool of power, of a means of controlling and subordinating areas. Power is seen as being in the hands of those who have the right to objectify those that they are imagining. Imagined geographies were mostly based on myth and legend, often depicting monstrous "others". Edward Said elaborates that: “Europe is powerful and articulate; Asia is defeated and distant." Further writers to have been heavily influenced by the concept of imagined geographies including Derek Gregory and Gearóid Ó Tuathail. Gregory argues that the war on terror shows a continuation of the same imagined geographies that Said uncovered. He claims that the Islamic world is portrayed as uncivilized; it is labeled as backward and failing. This justifies, in the view of those imagining, the military intervention that has been seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Edward Said mentions that when Islam appeared in Europe in the Middle Ages, the response was conservative and defensive. Ó' Tuathail has argued that geopolitical knowledges are forms of imagined geography. Using the example of Halford Mackinder's heartland theory, he has shown how the presentation of Eastern Europe / Western Russia as a key geopolitical region after the First World War influenced actions such as the recreation of Poland and the Polish Corridor in the 1918 Treaty of Versailles. ==See also==