The terms of Orientalism debate have barely changed since Said.

Evidence

And it is this current state of affairs, not just Said’s work, that this book aims to interrogate. That Said’s work remains relevant for my critique (as evidenced in the frequency with which I invoke it) has precisely to do with the fact that the terms of debate he set have not changed much in almost four decades, and this despite the many brilliant critiques that have been registered against his work. Put differently, his book remains the most learned and sophisticated summa exhibiting the persistent—should I say canonical?—misconceptions regarding Orientalism. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 18

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on how canonical scholarly debates institutionalize their own terms — parallels Thomas Kuhn’s point about paradigms setting the questions a field can ask.