Les Opéras Parfumés: Aspects of Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century French Opera

In his introduction to Orientalism, Edward Said defines the West's conceptualization of the East as a European invention which had been ‘since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences’. He further posits that this conceptualization has formed a basis on which western civilizations build self-definition. The Orient, therefore, has shifted from the imaginary to the actual. This creation of a culture in opposition has enabled Europeans to construct an impression of their collective ‘Self’ as reflected by the oriental ‘Other’. In this regard, Said formulates the notion of the orientalization of the Orient. Europe, in creating the demarcation of the world into East and West, has sought to locate its own proper topological and cultural place within a global scheme. While setting up the parameters of ‘western civilization’, the West defines the East. Since the known world at the time of this demarcation consisted of Europe, Asia, and the northern extremities of Africa, everything outside these designated parameters becomes the ‘Other’. Philosophies and concepts disorienting to western thought become the Orient.