Orientalism - autonomous learning
Orientalism - autonomous learning Orientalism - autonomous learning
I 110 ORIENTALISM "literature," or "the humanities," and despite its overreaching aspirations, Orientalism is involved in worldly, historical circumstances which it has tried to conceal behind an often pompous scientism and appeals to rationalism. The contemporary intellectual can learn from Orientalism how, on the one hand, either to limit or to enlarge realistically the scope of his discipline's claims, and on the other, to see the human ground (the foul-rag-and-bone shop of the heart, Yeats called it) in which texts, visions, methods, and disciplines begin, grow, thrive, and degenerate. To investigate Orientalism is also to propose intellectual ways for handling the methodological problems that history has brought forward, so to speak, in its subject matter, the Orient. But before that we must virtually see the humanistic values that Orientalism, by its scope, experiences, and structures, has all but eliminated. ,!I!l II I ,I 2 Orientalist Structures and Restructures When the" seyyid 'Omar, the Nakeeb el-Ashnif (or chief of the descendants of the Prophet) ... married a daughter, about forty-five years since, there walked before the procession a young man who had made an incision in his abdomen, and drawn out a large portion of his intestines, which he carried before him on a silver tray. After the procession, he restored them to their proper place, and remained in bed many days before he recovered from the effects of this foolish and disgusting act. -Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ... dans Ie cas de la chute de cet empire, soit par une revolution a Constantinople, soit par un dcmembrement successif, les puissances europeennes prendront chacune, a titre de protectorat, la partie de l'empire qui lui sera assignee par les stipulations du congres; que ces protectorats, definis et Iimites, quant aux territoires, selon les voisinages, la surete des frontieres, I'analogie de religions, de moeurs et d'illterets . . . ne consacreront que la suzerainete des puissances. Cette sorte de suzerainete definie ainsi, et consacree comme droit europeen, consistera principalement dans Ie droit d'occuper telle partie du territoire ou des cotes, pour y fonder, soit des villes Iibres, soit des colonies europeennes, soit des ports et des cchelles de commerce.... Ce n'est qu'une tutelJe armee et civilisatrice que chaque puissance exercera sur son protectorat; eUe garantira son existence et ses elements de nationalite, sous Ie drapeau d'une nationalite plus forte .... -Alphonse de Lamartine, Voyage en Orient
" I,'" I , I: I Redrawn Frontiers, Redefined Issues, Secularized Religion Gustave Flaubert died in 1880 without having finished Bouvard et Pecuchet, his comic encyclopedic novel on the degeneration of knowledge and the inanity of human effort. Nevertheless the essential outlines of his vision are clear, and are clearly supported by the ample detail of his novel. The two clerks are members of the ,:,1 bourgeoisie who, because one of them is the unexpected beneficiary of a handsome will, retire from the city to spend their lives on a country estate doing what they please ("nous ferons tout ce que nous plaira!"). As Flaubert portrays their experience, doing as they please involves Bouvard and Pecuchet in a practical and theoretical Ill: jaunt through agriculture, history, chemistry, education, archaeol I~ ogy, literature, always with less than successful results; they move through fields of learning like travelers in time and knowledge, experiencing the disappointments, disasters, and letdowns of uninspired amateurs. What they move through, in fact, is the whole disillusioning experience of the nineteenth century, whereby-in Charles Moraze's phrase-"les bourgeois conquerants" turn out to be the bumbling victims of their own leveling incompetence and mediocrity. Every enthusiasm resolves itself into a boring cliche, -;~( and every discipline or type of knowledge changes from hope and power into disorder, ruin, and sorrow. Among Flaubert's sketches for the conclusion of this panorama of despair are two items of special interest to us here. The two men debate the future of mankind. Pecuchet sees "the future of Humanity through a glass darkly," whereas Bouvard sees it "brightly!" III Modern man is progressing, Europe will be regenerated by Asia. The historical law that civilization moves from Orient to Occident . , : the two forms of humanity will at last be soldered together. 1 This obvious echo of Quinet represents the start of still another of the cycles of enthusiasm and disillusionment through which the two men will pass. Flaubert's notes indicate that like all his others, 113 I: Ii ,,,",,,, J ::, ~~- -
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"<br />
I,'"<br />
I ,<br />
I:<br />
I<br />
Redrawn Frontiers, Redefined<br />
Issues, Secularized Religion<br />
Gustave Flaubert died in 1880 without having finished Bouvard<br />
et Pecuchet, his comic encyclopedic novel on the degeneration of<br />
knowledge and the inanity of human effort. Nevertheless the essential<br />
outlines of his vision are clear, and are clearly supported by the<br />
ample detail of his novel. The two clerks are members of the<br />
,:,1<br />
bourgeoisie who, because one of them is the unexpected beneficiary<br />
of a handsome will, retire from the city to spend their lives on a<br />
country estate doing what they please ("nous ferons tout ce que nous<br />
plaira!"). As Flaubert portrays their experience, doing as they<br />
please involves Bouvard and Pecuchet in a practical and theoretical<br />
Ill: jaunt through agriculture, history, chemistry, education, archaeol<br />
I~ ogy, literature, always with less than successful results; they move<br />
through fields of <strong>learning</strong> like travelers in time and knowledge,<br />
experiencing the disappointments, disasters, and letdowns of uninspired<br />
amateurs. What they move through, in fact, is the whole<br />
disillusioning experience of the nineteenth century, whereby-in<br />
Charles Moraze's phrase-"les bourgeois conquerants" turn out to<br />
be the bumbling victims of their own leveling incompetence and<br />
mediocrity. Every enthusiasm resolves itself into a boring cliche,<br />
-;~(<br />
and every discipline or type of knowledge changes from hope and<br />
power into disorder, ruin, and sorrow.<br />
Among Flaubert's sketches for the conclusion of this panorama<br />
of despair are two items of special interest to us here. The two men<br />
debate the future of mankind. Pecuchet sees "the future of<br />
Humanity through a glass darkly," whereas Bouvard sees it<br />
"brightly!"<br />
III<br />
Modern man is progressing, Europe will be regenerated by Asia.<br />
The historical law that civilization moves from Orient to Occident<br />
. , : the two forms of humanity will at last be soldered together. 1<br />
This obvious echo of Quinet represents the start of still another of<br />
the cycles of enthusiasm and disillusionment through which the two<br />
men will pass. Flaubert's notes indicate that like all his others,<br />
113<br />
I:<br />
Ii<br />
,,,",,,,<br />
J ::,<br />
~~- -
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