Said’s timeless conception of orientalism actually undermined his anti-imperialist stance

Evidence

This is not to say that orientalism was the same regardless of whether it dealt with the Orient itself or with the Jews as the orientals of Europe. The exact nature of the relationship between orientalist images of Jews and Muslims has undergone, like orientalism itself, substantial historical variation. One has to guard against positing eternal semiotic systems that survive regardless of the social and political context. Although Said professes to be a follower of Foucault, his account of orientalism diverged radically from the historiographic habits of his professed master. Foucault, who focused on radical discontinuities in history, would not have subscribed to Said’s view of orientalism as spanning antiquity, the Middle Ages, modernity, and beyond. Indeed, his essentialist and idealistic conception of a timeless orientalism permanently inherent in some sort of a “Western mind” has been accused of preventing Said from formulating an effective anti-imperialist position. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 96

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to postcolonial theory debates about essentialism versus historicism in cultural critique.