3.1 Latent and Manifest Orientalism

In this section, Said applies the psychoanalytic concepts of latent and manifest content to Orientalism to describe the unconscious views of Orientalists and the conscious embodiment of those views. Latent Orientalism is always conservative and repetitive, and consists of a will to power over the Orient. Manifest Orientalism consists of an Orientalist determination to “reveal” the Orient through its study, leading to the creation of Western administrative imperatives over the East. Said refers to latent and manifest Orientalism to show how the unconscious views of Orientalists contribute to attitudes and actions toward the East.

Some of the instances of latent Orientalism that Said refers to are the racialization and gendering of Orientals. Said notes that Orientalist thinkers relied on racial classification to distinguish Orientals from Europeans. Orientalists also presumed a general “maleness” of Orientals (207), reducing the Orient to a single gender identity without reproductive capabilities. The generalizing attitudes of latent Orientalism are evident in British Statesman George Nathaniel Curzon’s views on Oriental Studies as an academic discipline. According to Curzon, there is a British responsibility to the Orient. This latent sense of responsibility justified the cultivation of Oriental Studies as a significant field of study. Curzon stated that Oriental Studies was “the necessary furniture of Empire” (215), suggesting that the discipline was a means of establishing British presence across the Orient.