ISBN 0731313569

In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of West Asia and North Africa, was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes.

Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Asian and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in the service of imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior. This allows 'Western imagination' to see 'Eastern' cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization.
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Het oriëntalisme in de schilderkunst valt te ontdekken in een hang naar exotische taferelen zoals haremscenes, figuren bij palmbomen, vurige paarden, arabesken, kamelen, minaretten, boogportalen en dergelijke. Beroemde schilders die het oriëntalisme beoefenden waren bijvoorbeeld Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Alfred Chataud, Horace Vernet, Adrien-Henri Tanoux, Étienne Dinet, Marià Fortuny, Giovanni Antonio Guardi, Jules Laurens, Filippo Baratti. Marius Bauer was een van de bekendste Nederlandse oriëntalisten. Karel Ooms was een Belgische kunstschilder die zich liet inspireren door Oosterse taferelen.
(Wikipedia)