Orientalism and the Debate over Cultural Diversity, with Dr. Mohamed Afifi

Reductionism is a key logic of orientalist representation. In this episode, guest dr. Mohamed Afifi discusses the critical role of (mis)translation in early orientalist scholarship, travel literature as a vehicle for stereotyping and manichean narratives about ‘the Orient’, and the orientalists’ double-sided approach to the cultural diversity of Arab-Islamic spheres: on the one hand, a monolithic cultural representation - on the other, an imperialist ‘divide and conquer’ strategy that instrumentalises ethnic, religious, and sectarian diversity. Switch on video for English subtitles!

• Mohamed Afifi is the head of the history department at Cairo’s University Faculty of Arts, and former chairman of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Culture. Scholar of modern Egyptian and Ottoman history, his research probes the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and its confluence with colonial struggles for power, as well as its historiography. He also authored the historical novel Ya’coub set during the French campaign in Egypt (1798-1801).