Rethinking E. Said’s “Orientalism” in modern Western and Russian scientific discourse

Abstract

We consider the perception of the orientalist concept formulated by E. Said in modern Western and Russian science. The key works that have been published over the past 10-15 years are analyzed, inasmuch as the thirty years that have passed since the publication of E. Said’s monograph is a sufficient period for rethinking both the main postulates of his book and critical remarks addressed to it. It is concluded that the debate in the Western scientific community, caused by the publication of “Orientalism” is still mainly focused on the personality of the author himself, and sometimes on the opposition to his contemporary, the American historian and orientalist Bernard Lewis. It is emphasized that after the death of E. Said, the revisionist-minded part of the American and British oriental schools received a new reason to criticize not only “Orientalism”, but also the author himself in order to forget the work, which became the starting point for many Western orientalists to revise their attitude to the object of study. As for Russian Oriental studies, the research of orientalism in the humanities in Russia continues, despite the time that has passed since the publication of the Russian translation of the book by E. Said, and the understanding of the image of the “other” fits into the global trend of the discourse of orientalism, although with some specific features associated with the historical past of Russia.