Orientalist tropes form a reusable repertoire rather than a uniform discourse

Evidence

These and other scholars have demonstrated that there is indeed a historical legacy of Orientalist depictions of Muslim women focusing on their need for liberation from their cultures and their religion. However, these and other studies also show that the development and application of Orientalist tropes were not the same in all times and places but rather emerged and were produced in specific circumstances and for specific times. Thus, both how particular discourses on Muslim women are produced, by whom, and to what end should not be assumed to be the same. There are patterns of the production and application of knowledge but they are not patterns of sameness. Rather, a repertoire of tropes developed over several centuries in both Europe and North America is at the disposal of those producing contemporary Islamophobic discourses. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 507

However, these and other studies also show that the development and application of Orientalist tropes were not the same in all times and places but rather emerged and were produced in specific circumstances and for specific times. Thus, both how particular discourses on Muslim women are produced, by whom, and to what end should not be assumed to be the same. There are patterns of the production and application of knowledge but they are not patterns of sameness. Rather, a repertoire of tropes developed over several centuries in both Europe and North America is at the disposal of those producing contemporary Islamophobic discourses. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 507

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames Orientalism as a flexible repertoire of available tropes, produced situationally by specific actors for specific ends — a key conceptual reframe for the book’s anatomy of intolerance.
• XREF: Echoes Said’s Orientalism but pushes beyond it: not a monolithic discourse but a situational toolbox; connects to Ernst’s project of decomposing Islamophobia into discrete mechanisms.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 507