Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Orientalism debate, inspired by the work of Edward Said, has been a major source of cross-disciplinary controversy in recent years. John MacKenzie offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of this vast literature of Orientalism and brings to the subject highly original historical perspectives.


The study provides the first major discussion of Orientalism by a historian of imperialism. Setting the analysis within the context of conflicting scholarly interpretations, John MacKenzie then carries the discussion into wholly new areas, testing the notion that the western arts received genuine inspiration from the East by examining the visual arts, architecture, design, music and theatre.


John MacKenzie concludes that western approaches to the Orient have been much more ambiguous and genuinely interactive then Said allowed. The artistic construction of the East by the West has invariably been achieved through a greater spirit of respect and in search of a truly syncretic culture. The Orient has indeed proved an inspiration to the European arts, even when caught in the web of imperial power relations.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This volume offers a panoramic view of the ways in which European and British music, theater, architecture, painting, and design appropriated the "Oriental." The "Orient" refers, above all, to the Muslim Middle East and North Africa but also includes China, Japan, and India. The appropriation itself took many forms: sometimes, the "Orient" was stereotyped, even caricatured, and its complex artistic heritage was reduced to easily commodified motifs. But frequently, as MacKenzie convincingly argues, the Orient and its arts had a genuine influence and even a profound effect on their Western counterparts. All the chapters are informative, and those on music and design are exceptionally so. Unfortunately, MacKenzie is also engaged in an extended argument with Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) and with the different discourses that seminal text generated. Misconstruing their theses as well as the reasons for their influence in the humanities, MacKenzie is at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, the book will be a very useful addition to the larger collections of art history and critical theory. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

John MacKenzie is Professor Emeritus at Lancaster University and Hon. Professor at St Andrews, Aberdeen and Stirling Universities, and Hon. Fellow at Edinburgh University.