Naming and enumerating the Orient actively constitutes it as reality

Evidence

Philosophically, then, the kind of language, thought, and vision that I have been calling Orientalism very generally is a form of radical realism; anyone employing Orientalism, which is the habit for dealing with questions, objects, qualities, and regions deemed Oriental, will designate, name, point to, fix what he is talking or thinking about with a word or phrase, which then is considered either to have acquired, or more simply to be, reality. Rhetorically speaking, Orientalism is absolutely anatomical and enumerative: to use its vocabulary is to engage in the particularizing and dividing of things Oriental into manageable parts. Psychologically, Orientalism is a form of paranoia, knowledge of another kind, say, from ordinary historical knowledge. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 191

Categorization

• DEFINE: Said’s tripartite definition of Orientalism: radical realism (philosophical), anatomical/enumerative (rhetorical), paranoia (psychological) — three mechanisms to carry forward.
• XREF: The ‘naming fixes reality’ move anticipates the construction-of-the-Other theme that recurs throughout the Islamophobia field; also parallels Foucault’s discourse-produces-object.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 191