Orientalism’s colonized subjects are abstracted figures rather than real human beings

Evidence

Aside from the picturesque characters offered European readers in the exotic fiction of minor writers (Pierre Loti, Marmaduke Pickthall, and the like), the non-European known to Europeans is precisely what Orwell says about him. He is either a figure of fun, or an atom in a vast collectivity designated in ordinary or cultivated discourse as an undifferentiated type called Oriental, African, yellow, brown, or Muslim. To such abstractions Orientalism had contributed its power of generalization, converting instances of a civilization into ideal bearers of its values, ideas, and positions, which in turn the Orientalists had found in “the Orient” and transformed into common cultural currency. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 649 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The collective singular for foreign peoples persists as false generalization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2033; Orientalism depicts MENA people as static and essentially religious despite modernity — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 101; Orientalism reflects the producing culture rather than its putative object — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 91 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Orientalism’s power of generalization converts real people into undifferentiated abstractions. #corroborates (0.95) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 649
• Orientalist discourse reduces human plurality to a few fixed collective abstractions #corroborates (0.92)