Debatable aspects of Edward Said’s theory of orientalism

In recent decades Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism has been dominating the imagological research of representations of the East. Although his theoretical model has long been almost unanimously accepted, it should not be applied uncritically – both because of the enormous diversity of the texts dealing with the Orient and because of the presence of a few debatable elements in the theoretical structure itself. This article examines some of these elements, focusing on the absence of certain orientalist research traditions from Said’s model and on his assertion that everything that people can know has in fact been constructed in their own mind.