variants:
or orientalism
plural Orientalisms or orientalisms
Definition of Orientalism
1 : scholarship, learning, or study in Asian subjects or languages
Knowledge of Islam and Muslims crystallised into what became known, by the late 18th century, as Orientalism—the study of the history, languages and cultures of the East.— Roger Hardy —now often used with negative connotations of a colonialist bias underlying and reinforced by such scholarshipAccording to Edward Said and other postcolonial critics, much of our dim view of Arabs is a product of an "Orientalism" that was constructed by European intellectuals of the 19th century …— Victor Hanson Davis"Orientalism" in the study of Muslim societies carries somewhat negative implications these days as a label for literary analyses deprived of social or historical context …— C. C. Stewart
2 usually orientalism : something (such as a style or manner) associated with or characteristic of Asia or Asians
Strauss's orientalisms are truly evocative: those in the "Dance of the Seven Veils" evoke both warmth and strangeness through their use of artificial scales …— Derrick Puffett
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The first known use of Orientalism was in 1747
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