The silencing of the Orient by representation is Orientalism’s founding structural pattern for Said.

Evidence

It is not a mere coincidence that Said begins his book with what he thinks is a telling encounter between Flaubert and an Egyptian courtesan, where Flaubert “spoke for and represented her … [but] she never spoke of herself, she never represented her emotions, presence, or history.” This is “not an isolated instance,” but a structural feature that Said regards as a demonstrative “pattern of relative strength between East and West” (6). — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 98

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects to the voice/silence theme — speaks to how the disempowered are spoken for rather than heard.