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Detail from "Scheherazade
Telling the Tales (or prologue)," 1918-22, Kay Nielsen
in "One Thousand and One Nights." From the Collection
of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum.
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Events, exhibit reveal bias of Orientalism
BY Meg Sullivan
UCLA Today
In “Arabian Nights,” Scheherazade distracts her new
husband from his murderous intentions by holding him spellbound
with one fantastic story after another of non-Westerners, who come
across as religious zealots, despots and superstitious fools.
Beginning this month and running through October, four different
events will cast a critical eye at “Orientalism,” or
the propensity to ascribe a host of negative stereotypes to inhabitants
of a wide swath between Morocco and Japan, but primarily the Middle
East.
“We still portray the East as a mishmash of religious excess,
superstition and despotism,” said English Professor Saree
Makdisi, “whereas conventional wisdom holds that the West
stands for truth, good and justice. Of course, nothing is that simple.”
The English Department will present its 10th annual marathon reading
May 12 in the Rolfe Hall courtyard. An anticipated 250 volunteers
will take turns reading from “Arabian Nights” until
noon May 13. The English version of this work will mark its 300th
anniversary next year.
On May 13-14, the School of the Arts and Architecture will present
“East and West: Orientalism and the Crisis of Representation.”
The symposium closes with a free 8 p.m. performance by the UCLA
Philharmonia Orchestra of Orientalist music at Schoenberg Hall.
On Oct. 21-22, a conference at the William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library is being organized by Makdisi and faculty colleague Felicity
Nussbaum. “The ‘Arabian Nights’ in Historical
Context” will bring to Los Angeles nine international scholars
to discuss how Orientalism captivated Europe during the Enlightenment.
On Oct. 1, Powell Library launches an exhibit of Middle Eastern-inspired
ephemera collected by Jonathan Friedlander, assistant director of
the Center for Near Eastern Studies. The collection demonstrates
that Orientalism is alive and well in America today.
See www.college.ucla.edu/orientalism.
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