Occidentalism : Images of the West

Book excerpt: This is an investigation of Western cultural identity. It shows how people's images of themselves and others reflect the power that different groups in a society have to shape these images. The contributors describe these images in Western academic writing, popular Western culture, and societies outside the West, in this counterpart to Edward Said's Orientalism. - ;Occidentalism is an investigation of images of Western cultural identity. Edward Said's Orientalism revolutionized Western understanding of non-Western cultures by showing how Western projected images shaped the Occidental of the Orient, but those who follow Said have not until now reflected that understanding back onto Western societies. Occidentalism shows how images of the West shape people's conceptions of themselves and others, and how these images are in turn shaped by members of Western and non-Western societies alike. The contributors describe and explicate these images in a variety of areas, from Western academic writing to popular Western culture, from societies within and outside the West, to show how power and conflict shape such conceptions. -