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The Imagined West: Exploring Occidentalism

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The Imagined West: Exploring Occidentalism Jukka Jouhki & Henna-Riikka Pennanen THE IMAGINED WEST: EXPLORING OCCIDENTALISM IntrodUction Christianity, the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution and colonialism. Sometimes, on the After the publication of Edward Said’s other hand, ‘a Westerner’ is simply a euphemism Orientalism (1995 [1978]), generalizing for a ‘white’ person, which means that a discourses about the cultures, societies, and Westerner can be anything from a reindeer peoples of the ‘East’ were not taken for granted herder in Northern Lapland to a stockbroker as much as they used to be. In his revered but in Manhattan. Considering the actual socio- also criticized book, Said described exhaustively cultural heterogeneity of the West, it is the traditional distorted European view of the surprising how unproblematically and vaguely East as the polar opposite of the West, or ‘the the term has been used both inside and outside Other’. The Orient was the object of the West’s of academia (see, e.g., Korhonen 2013; Péteri ed. colonization, and of fantasies and generalizations 2010; Makdisi 2002: 772–773; Bozatzis 2014: that had little to do with reality. While there has 130–134). been examination and abundant criticism of The concept of the West has always been Orientalist worldviews for several decades now, dynamic. A major shift in its meaning occurred scholars have only recently begun to examine when Europe lost its colonies in the course of the concept and the shifting meanings of the the 20th century, the United States became the Occident—the ‘West’ (Bavaj 2011: 4). new hegemonic world power, and at the same The Oxford English dictionary tells us time the Americans took a central role in the that ‘the West’ with a capital W—as opposed imagined West. The rest of the West meant, to the west as a point of the compass—means as Pekka Korhonen (2010: 8–9) describes it, ‘Europe and North America’, which are ‘seen in ‘a disparate collection of American allies from contrast to other civilizations’. However, why Norway and Turkey to Japan and Australia’. these geographical areas are called the West, According to Korhonen (2016; see also Jouhki which countries belong to the West, and what 2015), the West has more geopolitical coherence socio-cultural elements make a society ‘Western’ than the East has, but it is still an amoeba- depend on the discursive context. Sometimes like, ever-changing formation of states (which the concept refers to a certain geopolitical sometimes even includes some Asian countries) formation or a political system; often it connotes presented as one, single actor. In systemic terms, a high level of technological development or the relation between the concept and the reality scientific progress; at other times it simply refers is not a problematic one. There is definitely and to the populations in the world that are the undeniably something called ‘the West’, and richest and consume the most. In the historical although geopolitically, socially, and culturally imagination, the Western world is based on a what the concept refers to is in constant flux, series of interrelated phenomena including people believe in its unity. The West is ‘a widely suomen antropologi | volume 41 issue 2 summer 2016 1 Jukka Jouhki & Henna-Riikka Pennanen used euphemism’ that stands for an ‘underlying been viewed in Euro-American thought, and unity of culturally rooted values, institutions and how the Western ‘Self ’ has been perceived as a way of life’ (Miklóssy and Korhonen 2010: ix). being in existence. Occidentalism—the belief in a coherent socio-cultural entity called the West—is Examining THE WEST like nationalism or any other ideology that Behind Orientalism constructs a collective identity. Occidentalism, too, requires an aggregate of people who feel they belong to an ‘us’ and not to a ‘them’. As Edward Said called the tradition of imagining, a nationalist believes that a nation is to some writing about, and having power over the non- meaningful extent a homogenous formation, West as ‘Orientalism’. Before Said’s treatment, an Occidentalist believes that a fuzzy set of the term Orientalism had high academic value states and nations called ‘the West’ or ‘Western and it simply denoted to an interest in the countries’ has enough internal coherence to exist history and cultures of the Orient. After Said’s as a meaningful whole. Pekka Korhonen (2016; book, however, Orientalism came to suggest a see also Jouhki 2015) likens the West to a big skewed, colonial view of the world. According orchestra playing rapid jazz tunes non-stop. to Said, in the previous academic and popular Whether any members of the band leave or new imagination the Orient was perceived as ones arrive is irrelevant as long as there is noise. monolithic: everything between Morocco and In the present introductory article, the Japan was seen as basically the same culture. concept of Occidentalism is examined through Moreover, the Orientals were represented as the academic literature. The aim is to examine essentially irrational, emotional, child-like, and ‘the West’ as a concept, a product of imagination, collectivist, and on a lower level of progress and a discursive tradition. Despite their and civilization compared to the West—which fuzziness, the terms ‘the West’ and ‘Western’ justified their colonization (Said 1995). serve a purpose: they identify and classify a Said’s work has been criticized for combination of world regions and categorize presenting ‘Orientalists’ as one lot—all ideas about certain ways of life. Although it inherently imperialist, racist, and ethnocentric. is not exactly clear what these terms denote, Yet, while some 19th and 20th century Orientalist they are used as if there was a corresponding scholars indeed adopted the ‘monarch of all distinctive reality out there in the world. Among I survey’ attitude toward the Orient, others countless other ‘Us/Them’ divisions, the West/ were instead quite sympathetic and respectful East (or West/non-West) categorization forms toward it, and even thought that the Oriental and reinforces links between a geographical, way of life could bring some valuable spiritual historical, and sociological paradigmatic chain content to the soulless, materialistic, and over- of concepts. The result is an almost tangible and modernized society of the West. Although inescapable image of the world divided into Orientalists actually differed in their attitudes coherent units, one of which is called ‘the West’ toward the Orient, to Said they were all the (Coronil 1996: 52). However, to understand the same in that they imagined the East and the images of the West, it would be helpful first to West as essentially different, or as ontologically take a look at how its counterpart, the East, has binary cultural entities (Adas 1989: 348–350, suomen antropologi | volume 41 issue 2 summer 2016 2 Jukka Jouhki & Henna-Riikka Pennanen 353; Clifford 2001: 16; Scott 2011: 301; Said generalizing discourse is not the fact that it 1995). generalizes but the fact that the people who Said claimed that differences between produce and reproduce it are often not aware groups and societies were emphasized and that they are generalizing. Hence, we claim exaggerated by naming them according to that Occidentalism—just like Orientalism, an ethnic or cultural group. Feelings like joy nationalism, ethnocentrism, or any other process or suffering, or political organization, were of communal and identity construction—should defined in terms of these groups. Said pointed be an important focus of academic interest. out, for example, that in European and And yet, it has not been sufficiently examined, American literature about the East there had probed, and criticized (Bavaj 2011: 4; Beard been narratives about ‘Arab joy’, the ‘Oriental 1979: 6–7; Jouhki 2006: 59). mode of production’, the ‘Indian mind’, ‘Asian Said examined what he called Western superstition’, and so on. According to Said, Orientalism, and the intertwined Western elements of behavior were attributed to an hegemony in the East, but he stressed that a ethnic origin, which led to their being reinforced similar Eastern Occidentalist discourse should or exaggerated. Orientalists examining the not be created to complement or counteract East were inclined to view the cultures and Western Orientalism. Said (1995: 328) claimed societies they studied as evidence of an Oriental that Orientals would not benefit in any way existence: no Oriental could progress in time from constructing their own stereotypes or overcome the influence of their origin. If and images of the West, and of Occidentals. deviations from the canonized Oriental way However, Said’s warning was surprisingly of life were observed, they were interpreted as uninformed, because discourses and images of abnormal, non-Oriental, and/or Western (Said the West and Westerners have certainly existed 1995: 233–234; Jouhki 2006: 36). for a long time outside of the West. Indeed, Nowadays, Orientalism is considered a Occidentalism (or multiple Occidentalisms) has prime example of the power of academic and been reproduced ever since the idea of the West popular discourse to essentialize a group of or Western people was formed (Takeuchi 2010: people. Concepts such as ‘Asian mind’, ‘Eastern 24; Jouhki 2006: 49), and there are plenty of thought’, or ‘Muslim culture’ are still used today, non-Western counter-narratives about the West but it is increasingly difficult to justify such (Woltering 2011: 5; Coronil 1996: 55–56; Sims generalizing speech. Moreover, ‘the Orient’ as 2012:
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