Abstract
Orientalism is a broad concept of cultural studies which is nurtured with the fabricated stereotypical images of the Middle East and the Eastern world that were developed or imagined by the West. Edward. W. Said strengthens the concept of the ‘Orientalism' by his wide explanation and discussion about the Orient. However, Hollywood cinema shows an imprint of Orientalism while depicting the Indian scenario. Hollywood cinema with Indian set up shows several fabricated stereotypical concepts related to India and Indian society. The stereotypical concepts are mainly related to the Indian tradition, customs, rituals, poverty, illiteracy, etc. Even they use various beautiful landscape and Indian music in their own ways to give mystic charms to their cinema. Recently it was recognised that the stereotypical concepts about India and Indian society are changing rapidly in Hollywood cinemas which try to justify that the concept of Orientalism is changing with the passage of time or with the arrival of modernity.
TopIntroduction
The Orientalism is a broad concept or the study of the orient or the eastern world. It is a branch of cultural studies that is based on western fantasy or the style of thought about the east. It reflects how the western world views the East. The wide concept of Orientalism was developed by the early western world that depicts about the Middle East and the East. The concept mainly encircled with various fabricated stereotypical idea about the Middle East and the East. Edward Said enrich the field of Orientalism with his critical thoughts and explanations about the Orient and the Occident. Edward. W. Said in the Introduction of his book ‘Orientalism’ opined about the Orientalism as:
Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident”. Thus a very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists and imperial administrators have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social description and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, “mind”, destiny and so on- (Said, E. 1979; pg 2-3)
The statement of the Said reflects his thoughts which are based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between the orient and the occident. In the lower section of the Introduction he also described Orientalism in short as: “Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient”. The statement reflects western dominating styles of thought about the East.
The concept of Orientalism was wide and discussed by various scholars in various way. Srinivas Aravamudan in his book ‘Enlightenment Orientalism’ compared and contrasts Orientalism with Enlightenment. In the initial introductory part he compared Edward Said’s Orientalism with Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment. Ziauddin Sardar in his book ‘Concepts in the social science: Orientalism’ mentioned Orientalism as:
As a scholarly tradition, Orientalism was concerned with the study of Asian civilization, identifying, editing and interpreting the fundamental texts of these civilizations and the transmission of this scholarly tradition from one generation to another through an established chain of teacher and students. It was largely focused on Islam; and Islamic studies became a major branch of Orientalism. Orientalism thus studied Islam and other civilization with European ideas of God, man, nature, society, science and history and consistently found non- Western cultures and civilizations to be inferior and backward. (Sardar1999; pg 4)
Ziauddin Sardar focused on Islamic study related to Orientalism, however Orientalism was not only confined or encircled within Islamic studies rather its existence reflected from various western point of views associated with various fields or study related to the Middle East and the Eastern nation .The concepts of Orientalism are also traced while analysing several Hollywood cinemas with Indian set up. The term Hollywood is most synonymous with the American film industry from the early 1990’s. It becomes a wide source of entertainment not only for the United State of America but also for the entire globe in the modern era. Since the early 1990’s, the mesmerizing charms of the Hollywood spread worldwide and took the audience into the world of love, romance and action. Hollywood produces a wide variety of cinema based on action, spying, love, romance, tragedy, comic, scientific fiction etc. Recently the work of graphic and animation are also playing a significant role in creation of fictional and delusive character, atmosphere, surrounding, background, etc which take the audience into the world of fantasy. Along with all this variety, Hollywood cinemas often focus on the Middle East and the East to give a fictional oriental charm. The atmosphere and background of the Middle East and the East become vital for several Hollywood cinemas. They focus on their society, traditions, customs, food habits, dress codes etc to put an oriental effect on the cinema. Hollywood cinemas use the oriental backgrounds of the Middle East and the East mainly to give a dramatic effect to the cinemas that provides audience the fabricated magical beauty of the East. The touch of the Middle East are mainly represented and reflected by the Arabic world. The Hollywood cinema like ‘The Thief of Bagdad’ (1940), ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ (1958), ‘Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time’ (2010), ‘Aladdin’ (2019), etc reflect the charms of the Middle East Arabic world and put the light on the oriental views.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cinema: Motion picture or a movie.
Hollywood: An area in Los Angeles but its name associated with American or western film industries.
Moksha: According to Hindu philosophy the ultimate liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth.
SFX: Sound mixing for musical or sound effect.
Orientalism: The study of the history, Language, culture and tradition of the Middle East and Eastern nations.
Spiritual: Holy or divine feeling or belief related to spirit or god.
Cross Culture: Dealing or comparing two or more culture.
Namaskar: A traditional Indian way of greeting someone by joining two hands.
Stereotypical: A fixed set of idea that may be false.