The Avant-Garde in the 19th Century

In his book, Orientalism, Edward Said has delved into the artistic representations that try to imitate the East in a manner of expressing the distinct cultures. Said places more emphasis on the discourse that is notable from the real Eastern environment to the depictions that is made through various mediums. To him, this is false depiction that arises from the Western society’s need to romanticize the Eastern culture rather than properly create an enlightenment and appreciation of other peoples’ art, music, and literature. This brings out one major point about discourse surrounding orientalism, in that it is stemmed upon a biased view by the Western[1].

Secondly, the discourse associated with orientalism could be associated by the human need to advance their own cultural and financial gain. According to Said, a number of artistic representation of the East came about as a medium of exploiting the unaware consumers who fell for any bogus replica of the Eastern culture[2].