East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Assayag,Jackie
Data de Publicação: 2007
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0873-65612007000100012
Resumo: For at least two hundred years, Western countries have exercized a "benevolent" violence through colonization. Advocated in the name of the "civilizing mission" of the West and inspired by eschatology, this calling held the promise of redemption, both for the colonizer and for the colonized. The "war declared on terrorism" after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of ameliorative interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topoi. Far from effacing the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a putatively new type reinforce and polarize the division between "civilized" and "barbaric" in the era of "globalization". The unfolding ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be "outside" or "inside", because no country would now be exempt from terrorism, obscures at little cost, but not ineffectually, the "colonial present". What now prevails is a sombre vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between the "Empire of the Good", incarnated by America, and the "Empire of Evil", incarnated by Islamic terrorism. But this novelty goes back to schemas that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed "exceptional", "unilateral" and "providential" "imperial republic" has an idealistic or utopian component qualified as "indispensable". Welcome the the "Wilsonism in boots"!
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spelling East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial presentempirecolonialismwarorientalismUnited States of AmericaFor at least two hundred years, Western countries have exercized a "benevolent" violence through colonization. Advocated in the name of the "civilizing mission" of the West and inspired by eschatology, this calling held the promise of redemption, both for the colonizer and for the colonized. The "war declared on terrorism" after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of ameliorative interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topoi. Far from effacing the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a putatively new type reinforce and polarize the division between "civilized" and "barbaric" in the era of "globalization". The unfolding ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be "outside" or "inside", because no country would now be exempt from terrorism, obscures at little cost, but not ineffectually, the "colonial present". What now prevails is a sombre vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between the "Empire of the Good", incarnated by America, and the "Empire of Evil", incarnated by Islamic terrorism. But this novelty goes back to schemas that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed "exceptional", "unilateral" and "providential" "imperial republic" has an idealistic or utopian component qualified as "indispensable". Welcome the the "Wilsonism in boots"!Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia - CRIA2007-05-01info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articletext/htmlhttp://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0873-65612007000100012Etnográfica v.11 n.1 2007reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttp://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0873-65612007000100012Assayag,Jackieinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess2024-02-06T17:11:17Zoai:scielo:S0873-65612007000100012Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T02:22:26.851813Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
title East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
spellingShingle East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
Assayag,Jackie
empire
colonialism
war
orientalism
United States of America
title_short East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
title_full East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
title_fullStr East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
title_full_unstemmed East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
title_sort East and West: Orientalism, war and the colonial present
author Assayag,Jackie
author_facet Assayag,Jackie
author_role author
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Assayag,Jackie
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv empire
colonialism
war
orientalism
United States of America
topic empire
colonialism
war
orientalism
United States of America
description For at least two hundred years, Western countries have exercized a "benevolent" violence through colonization. Advocated in the name of the "civilizing mission" of the West and inspired by eschatology, this calling held the promise of redemption, both for the colonizer and for the colonized. The "war declared on terrorism" after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of ameliorative interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topoi. Far from effacing the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a putatively new type reinforce and polarize the division between "civilized" and "barbaric" in the era of "globalization". The unfolding ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be "outside" or "inside", because no country would now be exempt from terrorism, obscures at little cost, but not ineffectually, the "colonial present". What now prevails is a sombre vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between the "Empire of the Good", incarnated by America, and the "Empire of Evil", incarnated by Islamic terrorism. But this novelty goes back to schemas that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed "exceptional", "unilateral" and "providential" "imperial republic" has an idealistic or utopian component qualified as "indispensable". Welcome the the "Wilsonism in boots"!
publishDate 2007
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2007-05-01
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dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0873-65612007000100012
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dc.format.none.fl_str_mv text/html
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia - CRIA
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia - CRIA
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Etnográfica v.11 n.1 2007
reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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