ABSTRACT
Edward Said's Orientalism, and to a lesser extent the other cnttques of orientalism published in the 1960s and 1970s, sparked off an explosion of interest in the intercultural relations of East and West, Orient and Occident, Europe and Asia. Sanskrit and Power beyond the Raj', showed how, in Germany in the 1930s, orientalism, as practised by German orientalists, was capable of creating, or at least helping to create, an internal 'other', with devastating consequences for both the host community and the 'other'. In art, orientalism was used to create a feudal, chivalric, pre-industrial world of supposedly uncomplicated social relations, clear legal obligations, heroic connections with the environment, a supposedly appropriate separation of the gender spheres and enthusiasm for craft production. In reality, orientalism was endlessly protean, as often consumed by admiration and reverence as by denigration and depreciation.
