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Introducing Re-Orientalism
Almost three decades ago, Edward Said identified and articulated the processes of Orientalism, the relationship of power and dominance where the Oriental was submitted to being made the Oriental. As illustration of the concept, Said used the example of Flaubert's encounter with an Egyptian courtesan, "which produced a widely influential model of the Oriental woman; she never spoke of herself, she never represented her emotions, presence, or history. He spoke for and represented her. He was foreign, comparatively wealthy, male, and these were historical facts of domination that allowed him not only to possess Kuchuk Hanem physically but to speak for her and tell his readers in what way she was 'typically Oriental'" (Said 1978: 6). Said's argument was that Flaubert's situation in relation to Kuchuk Hanem illustrated a parallel situation to that between the Occident and the Orient.
Orientalism has long been evident in the literature written about South Asia from the days of colonialism, which began with non-South Asians writing and representing the Indian Sub-Continent and its people. However, even in contemporary South Asian literature in English by South Asians, the process of Orientalism can be seen to be still occurring. The curious development over these few recent decades is that Orientalism is no longer only the relationship of the dominance and representation of the Oriental by the non-Oriental or Occidental, but that this role appears to have been taken over (in part at least) by other Orientals, namely, the diasporic authors. This process of Orientalism by Orientals is what I will be terming as 'Re-Orientalism' for the purposes of this article, which is the same relationship of the powerful speaking for and representing the other, who is all but consigned to subalternism. In Re-Orientalism, we have the curious case in which the positionality of the powerful is simultaneously that of the insider and outsider, where the representing power can be simultaneously self and other.
Because diasporic writers are based mainly in the Occident, some may regard this simply as Orientalism, as it has ever been, but I would argue that there has been a difference, because these diasporic authors can be identified as Orientals to some extent, culturally, ethnically, etc. They are not completely...