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The terms ‘West-East’ and ‘North-South’
Orientalism
Balkanism
Images of the Balkans
Third Lesson
Lecturer: Petros Marazopoulos
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.gr
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The notions of West, East, North and South. An
Introduction
• The image of the Balkan Peninsula as ‘an imaginary bridge connecting West and
the East
• The Greek attempt to define themselves on the basis of East and West
• The similar generalized idea in the Balkans- (Escaping the ‘eastern’ image)
• West, East, South and North as ‘theoretical abstractions’
• A way of dividing through not purely geographical criteria
• Usage of the terms in the contemporary era
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Geography as science:
mapping the earth and
is people
Descriptions,
imagination, ideology
and evaluation
The gradual
appearance of
political, economic or
cultural meanings
Geography-From observation to ideology
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Geography-From observation to ideology
▪ From description to evaluation
▪ A recurring pattern- the center of the world and the periphery
▪ Characteristics of a periphery- strange, partly dangerous, exotic
▪ Mapping the regions of the earth has almost always been accompanied by an
ideological approach that has sometimes been covert and sometimes more obvious.
▪ West, East, North and South: notions ideologically charged
▪ Value comparisons
▪ Defining the West as superior to the East in terms of intellectual, developmental,
cultural or economic level
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Evaluation of West-East and South-North
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Edward Said-Orientalism
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Edward Said-Orientalism
▪ In 1978 Edward Said, attempting to describe the concept of the East as it was created and
became known in the Western world, published his study Orientalism.
▪ He explores the practices of Western writers regarding East (in political, ethnographic,
geographical and literary texts)
▪ These texts constitute a knowledge that reflects Europe's dominant disposition towards the East
(Foucault)
▪ Orientalism as ''a Western way of imposing, dominance and power over the East''
▪ Said defines the East as an ''almost European invention'', as one of the deepest and most
obsessive European images of the Other, as well as a determinant of Western or European
identity
▪ The relationship between West and East is a relationship of power, of domination, of complex
hegemony in varying degrees.
▪ East: European invention since antiquity; place of romance, exotic creatures and unforgettable
memories
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Edward Said-Orientalism
➢ Central Idea- West's knowledge of the East emerged entirely through a power relationship
➢ East perceived as 'irrational', 'depraved', 'childish', and 'different’ # Europe perceived
correspondingly as 'rational', 'virtuous', 'mature', and 'normal’.
➢ According to Said East, through an imagined (centuries-old) distinction, East has been
associated with inferiority, backwardness, and also intellectual subordination to the West.
➢ The notions of racism, imperialism and ethnocentrism to the depictions
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Edward Said-Orientalism
➢ The West attempt to impose through the texts under examination
➢ The need for Western conquest
➢ Said's study as one of the most influential studies in the modern academic community
➢ Warm supporters Vs repeated criticism
➢ Orientalism as a theoretical base for contemporary studies
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The four dogmas of Orientalism- A summary
➢ The absolute and systematic difference between the West and the East: West is rational,
developed, humanistic, superior, East is deviant, underdeveloped, inferior.
➢ When referring to East and the ''classical'' Eastern civilization, these constructions are
always preferable to direct evidence drawn from contemporary Eastern realities.
➢ East is eternal and incapable of defining itself. Therefore, for the Westerner to use a
generalized Word to describe the East is inevitable (stereotypes)
➢ The East is something to be feared or controlled
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Maria Todorova- Imagining the Balkans
• The discussion of contemporary images of the Balkans
• The theoretical framework from Edward Said
• Exploring the imaginative relationship between Western and Southeastern Europe through the
phenomenon of Balkanism.
• Differences between Orientalism and Balkanism
• Balkanism ''gradually took shape over the course of two centuries and crystallized into a specific
discourse at the time of the Balkan wars and World War I’’
• The imaginary relations between the West and the Balkans and perceptions of the Balkans by
Western Europe
• Travel literature, journalism, political reviews and ’hybrid-texts’
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Maria Todorova- Imagining the Balkans
❖ Constructions connected with the Balkan Peninsula (primitivism, superstition, unable
to govern, political instability, violence etc)
❖ The term ‘Balkanization’
❖ Balkans and the ‘Image the Other’
❖ Isolation from main Europe and negative, consolidated connotations
❖ Is Orientalism applicable to Balkanism?
❖ The depictions used in central Europe so as to describe the Balkans, were used also
to highlight the image of the Balkans as non-Europe (concrete stereotypes)
❖ Balkans as an imaginary construction of the West
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How did the Balkans react?
• The reaction to these constructions
• Attempt to avoid being considered as Balkans
• The seek for a ‘European identity’
• Self-identity and the neighbor
• The role of the EU (contemporary era)
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Defining Orientalism
“Every writer on the Orient (and this is true even of Homer) assumes
some Oriental precedent, some previous knowledge of the Orient, to
which he refers and on which he relies. Additionally, each work on the
Orient affiliates itself with other works, with audiences, with
institutions, with the Orient itself. The ensemble of relationships
between works, audiences, and some particular aspects of the Orient
therefore constitutes an analyzable formation[…]whose presence in
time, in discourse, in institutions (schools, libraries, foreign services)
gives it strength and authority.”
Edward W. Said, Orientalism
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Orientalism-Constructing the East through public
speech
First of all, look at the facts of the case. Western nations as soon as they
emerge into history show the beginnings of those capacities for selfgovernment
... having merits of their own . . .. You may look through
the whole history of the Orientals in what is called, broadly speaking,
tand you never find traces of self government. All their great centuriesand
they have been very great-have been passed under despotisms,
under absolute government. All their great contributions to civilisationand
they have been great-have been made under that form of
government. Conqueror has succeeded Dnqueror; one domination
has followed another; but never in all the revolutions of fate and
fortune have you seen one of those nations of its own motion establish
what we, from a Western point of view, call self-government. That is the
fact. It is not a question of superiority and inferiority.
Arthur Balfour
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Orientalism-Constructing the East through public
speech
Is it a good thing for these great nations-I admit their greatness. -that
this absolute government should be exercised by us? I think it is a
good thing. I think that experience shows that they have got under it
far better government than in the whole history of the world they ever
had before, and which not only is a benefit to them, but is
undoubtedly a benefit to the whole of the civilised West .... We are in
Egypt not merely for the sake of the Egyptians, though we are there
for their sake; we are there also for the sake of Europe at large.
Arthur Balfour
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Contemporary Orientalism
“In newsreels or news-photos, the Arab is always shown in large
numbers. No individuality, no personal characteristics or experiences.
Most of the pictures represent mass rage and misery, or irrational
(hence hopelessly eccentric) gestures. Lurking behind all of these
images is the menace of jihad. Consequence: a fear that the Muslims
(or Arabs) will take over the world.”
Edward W. Said, Orientalism
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Slavoj Zizek- You may!
"If you ask, 'Where do the Balkans begin?' you will always be told that they begin down there,
towards the southeast. For Serbs, they start in Kosovo or Bosnia where Serbia is trying to defend
civilized Christian Europe against the encroachments of this Other. For the Croats, the Balkans begin
in Orthodox, despotic and Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia is safeguards Western
democratic values. For many Italians and Austrians, they begin in Slovenia, the Western outpost of
the Slavic hordes. For many Germans, Austria is tainted with Balkan corruption and inefficiency; for
many Northern Germans, Catholic Bavaria is not free from Balkan contamination. Many arrogant
Frenchmen associate Germany with Eastern Balkan brutality - it lacks French finesse. Finally, to some
British opponents of the European Union, continental Europe is a new version of the Turkish Empire
with Brussels as the new Istanbul; a voracious despotism threatening British freedom and
sovereignty.''
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Agatha Cristie, ‘Herzoslovakia’ as an uncivilized country
and the character ‘Boris Anchoukoff’
“I say this to you, English policeman, I would have died for him! And since he is dead, and I still live,
my eyes shall not know sleep, or my heart rest, until I have avenged him. Like a dog will I nose out
his murderer and when I have discovered him—Ah!” His eyes lit up. Suddenly he drew an immense
knife from beneath his coat and brandished it aloft. “Not all at once will I kill him—oh, no!—first I will
slit his nose, and cut off his ears, and put out his eyes, and then—then, into his black heart I will thrust
this knife.
Agatha Cristie as mentioned in Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans
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Petros Marazopoulos
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.com
October 2022