Examine the concept of Orientalism as propounded by Edward Said in his book Orientalism.

In
addition to the above answer, I might just add that in , Edward Said
established a binary between Orient and Occident. It was this binary that created the
"Other" and that allowed the colonizers to form a cohesive Us identity in the
corollary Us/Them binary. Postcolonialist professors embrace this criticism because of adherence
to the precept that dignity derives from recognizing each group as equal as opposed to a Them
inferior to or subservient to an Us.

The relevance of Said's binary of
Orientalism to literature is that he contends (critics suggest boldly contends) that there could
be no European literature from the end of the 18th century onward (at which time morality ceased
being an individual choice of a code of conduct and became a cultural construct) as we know it
because from Austen to Conrad, the Us/Them Orientalism binary is present. In works such as
Austen's, it is present in a stark silence; in work such as Conrad's it is present with a
passive Them as ineffectual background to the Us who have the agency, authority and rational
capability to act.