Occidentalism ian buruma avishai margalit biography

Occidentalism, as defined by Avishai Margalit, George F. Kennan Professor in the School of Historical Studies, is a modern phenomenon, a dehumanizing picture of the West, painted not only by its enemies but in fact propagated from within.

"Occidentalism is by no means the private domain of a particular non-Western civilization, whether Islamic, Hindu, Confucian or what have you," said Margalit. "Indeed, all the main outlines of the Occidentalist picture were drawn within the West and were exported from the West to other parts of the globe.

A good metaphor for this is the trail of the colorful cloth that was produced in cheap Parisian factories to be exported to Tahiti only to bounce back, through Gauguin's paintings, as authentic local Polynesian dress."

In his book Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies with Ian Buruma (The Penguin Press, 2004), Margalit explored anti-Western stereotypes and traced their source t