Page "Cultural imperialism" Paragraph 10

Informed by the work of Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault, and Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said is considered to be a founding figure for postcolonialism.

Said himself describes his book, Orientalism, as a humanist critique of the enlightenment.

In it, he criticizes Western ( specifically English and French ) knowledge about Western constructions of " the East ".

This " knowledge " then leads to a tendency towards a binary opposition of the orient vs. the occident, where one is defined in opposition to the other, and they are unequal in value.

In Culture and Imperialism, the sequel to Orientalism, Said argues that while the formal " age of empire " ended after World War II, imperialism has left a cultural legacy in the previously-colonized civilizations that remains today.

He furthermore argues that this legacy of imperialism or cultural imperialism is still very influential in international systems of power.