6. What is the key difference, according to the author, between the English and the oriental mind-set? mouthor Ch Clich?
Answers
Answer:
For centuries, the term Oriental has been widely used by the people of Europe to signify various phenomena referring to the East, and it was equally applied to geographical and cultural entities, opposite to occidental or Western peoples and cultures. However, the Orient came to mean different things in different periods of history, changing its scope and cultural context and becoming a contested word with unspecified connotations. While in art classifications Oriental art exists as one of the major branches, it is still undetermined what exactly falls under this category and the confusion originates from the misconceptions related to the geographical amplitude of the East when looked through the eyes of the Westerners. Furthermore, it is equally important to distinguish between genuine Oriental art and pseudo-Oriental art or Orientalist art, born in Western Europe as a sign of fascination with the Orient, whatever it was supposed to be.