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Re-Orientalism: The Perpetration and Development of Orientalism by Orientals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

LISA LAU
LISA LAU*
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Geography, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
*
*Email: l.e.j.lau@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article discusses the perpetration of Orientalism in the arena of contemporary South Asian literature in English: no longer an Orientalism propagated by Occidentals, but ironically enough, by Orientals, albeit by diasporic Orientals. This process, which is here termed as Re-Orientalism, dominates and, to a significant extent, distorts the representation of the Orient, seizing voice and platform, and once again consigning the Oriental within the Orient to a position of ‘The Other’. The article begins by analysing and establishing the dominant positionality of diasporic South Asian women writers relative to their non-diasporic counterparts in the genre, particularly within the last half decade. It then identifies three problems with the techniques employed by some diasporic authors which have exacerbated the detrimental effects of Re-Orientalism; the pre-occupation with producing writing which is recognisably within the South Asian genre, the problem of generalisation and totalisation, and the insidious nature of ‘truth claims’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 571 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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