Orientalisms in East Asia. A theoretical model

Thirty years ago, Edward Said’s Orientalism changed the course of postcolonial studies, of comparative cultural studies, of the comparative study of discourse and rhetoric and of studies of postmodernism. Various authors who have turned the tables on ‘orientalism’ and write about ‘occidentalism’ have made important contributions to the critical analysis of Euroamerican orientalist discourse while re-examining traditional East Asian discourse and its consequences. The orientalist discourse forms part of Euroamerican ‘modernity’, and its deconstruction contributes to ‘postmodernity’, producing ‘reverse orientalism’, ‘self-orientalism’ or ‘auto-orientalism’, and ‘retro-orientalism’. This working paper will propose a theoretical model for analysing the construction of these new discourses in East Asia as a reaction to Euroamerican modernity that contributes to the construction of (post) modernity.