How Said advocates the need to explore history rather than to repress or deny it and also that he is against the attitude of retrospective vindictiveness. Rather he talks about the need for multiculturalism.

This is only a short-answer space but I can make a general comment. Despite the so-designated Orient’s deep and rich culture, the notions imposed by the West still define the East today. Their cultural identity has become fused with the fabricated notions which have rather worked in the West’s favor. The author argues that the real reason Orientalism worked came from the perceived knowledge. This fabricated knowledge worked effectively in the consolidation of power. The notion was that the East were a less advanced people and that the West had a primary responsibility to provide progress and innovation. The West made sure to imprint this idea which persists to date.

1. In your opinion, has there been more or less "reinforcement" of Orientalist stereotypes? In what way? Where? Why?

2. Explain the following statement: "England knows Egypt; Egypt is what England knows...."

3. Explain in what way "colonial rule was justified in advance by Orientalism"?

4. What does Said mean when he refers to "Europe's collective day-dream of the Orient"?

5. What role does geography play in orientalist discourse?

6. What does Said mean when he states that Orientalism is about making the East known and therefore less fearsome?

7. How far back in time do representations of the Orient go? Give concrete examples

.8. What importance does Dante's Inferno have with Said's analysis?

9. What does Said mean when he refers to Orientalism as a form of "radical realism"?

10. What role does hegemony play in orientalist discourse?