La Revolución Cultural del Orientalismo. Una estética de la aproximación Gramsciano - Foucaultiana a la obra de Edward W. Said

This essay tries to prove the main contribution of the Edward W. Said work to Cultural Studies. All this work converges in a universal thought: the Cultural Cevolution of Orientalism as a new Renaissance, which had been risen in the field of postcolonial critical theory.

Throughout this essay, the issue of Orientalism as a Cultural Revolution will be developed from two visions: On the one hand, from the vision of its defenders (Orientalists, Post Colonial Studies, Cultural Studies), and, on the other, from the vision of its detractors (Structuralism, and others). This cultural revolution will be possible thanks to the Gramscian Foucaultian Aesthetic Thought which Edward W. Said (1935 – 2003) supports within his complete work.

On a first stage, the Question of Orient will be analysed since Antiquity to Nowadays. Not only has its cultural challenge been implemented by Orientalism, but also its origins, its cultural heritage, whose aesthetic vision has been reflected as a witness of all those trade delegations which has been undertaken towards Orient. And, last but not least, its intellectual effort has been based on the Classical Orientalism main authors.

On a second stage, a methodology for Orientalism has been established. There will be based on their re-invention, from its literary universalism and its link within the critical orientation which had been driven by Cultural Hegemony as a new method. The Gramscian – Foucaultian Aesthetics, which had been defended by Edward Said, will be deeply studied throughout these pages.

On a third stage, all literary criticism which Orientalism has raised, will be developed, this being Postcolonial Discourse, the Cultural Studies dimension as the genesis for a phenomenology of passions, to arrive to a final conclusion.

As a final conclusion, Orientalism will be supported as a project for a reintegrating vocation of culture. Orientalism will put the basis for a poetic sentiment within Cultural Studies, as a contribution to Postcolonial theory, of which Edward W. Said is his highest representative in its Anglo-Saxon variant.