According to Edward Said's concept, in the West, in the colonial powers, there was

a special discourse (way of talking about something) about the colonized areas of
the Middle East and the East. .
Orientalism
 Is a concept
o It describes how Western representations of the East are not objective
and transparent descriptions of reality
o It is a discursive constructions vested with racializing and imperialist
interests and imaginaries:
 Generalisations and stereotypes that confirm the Western image
of itself as culturally, politically and morally superior.
The East is represented/constructed/othered as simple, naive, lazy, irrational,
unreliable, emotional, vain, aggressive, strange, exotic, seductive, and so
on.
o Implicit the West stands for the opposite of such qualities.
Orientalist constructions of the Other happens in
European popular and intellectual culture literature, philosophy,
historiography, art and so on.
European institutions
o political and social, scientific and educational institutions

the ideas and problems that are expressed with the concept of ”orientalism”:
• In the eyes of the colonial masters and in the colonial literature, the native ("The
Other") could be considered a semi-monster and / or half child.
• The first travelers and adventurers to explore the overseas territories came home
with stories of dangerous monsters.
• The image could be used to, so to speak, "expel" the dangerous "other" from
consciousness.
• But it also led to desires to reform / socialize / educate.
• The story of Robinson Crusoe and Friday is well known.