Edward Said and post-colonial theories: The possibility of crossing the “center” based on the concept of “ontological rebellion”

The main question of this research is how to decentralize the West? To answer this question, Edward Said's ideas are the focus of research and analysis. The results of the research show that Edward Said raises the concept of "ontological rebellion" against Western colonialism, considering his existential situation. Based on this concept, the eastern man, who is considered by the western subject as an object and in the state of "objectification", must turn to "ontological rebellion" in order to formulate his situation and overcome it. Ontological rebellion provides the ground for "decentralization of the West”. However, this is not achieved by simply relying on Eurocentric and Orientalist concepts; rather, we need "epistemological rebellion" from the West and the reconstruction of our intellectual tradition. Then this rebellion spreads to other fields, especially to the field of action, and leads to the formation of non-Eurocentric structures and decentralization from the West, of which the Iranian revolution can be considered as an example.
Keywords: Edward Said, post-colonial theories, decentralization of the West, ontological rebellion, Epistemological rebellion.
Introduction
It is often thought that the center of the world is Western Europe and America. But, is it not possible to think outside of this geography and paradigm? Can a non-western person be a "subject" and have agency, self-awareness, social awareness, and the power and will to change?
Until the 1950s, the world was divided into two spheres intellectually, civilizationally, politically, economically, militarily, scientifically, and cognitively: in one sphere, it is "human" or "subject" and in the other sphere, it is "native" or "object". According to this, non-western people are objects, and the object is not self-aware, nor is it possible for him to be self-aware; rather, it is inherently - and not transversely - in the state of "objectification" and must be colonized. In our mind, colonization is a bad thing, but in the colonizer's mind, colonization means cultivating the field. "Native" is the object, and the western man is the gardener and must organize this barren farm and give it culture and civilization.
Edward Said is one of the thinkers of the tradition of postcolonial theories, who aims to criticize the above notion. Regarding his existential situation, he presents a discussion whose main foundation is on a general concept called "ontological rebellion". In this article, while explaining Edward Said's point of view, we criticize it.
Materials & Methods
The present research is a research, theoretical and its method is analytical-critical. The research approach is also qualitative; Qualitative research requires identifying sources related to the research topic, studying texts, understanding the meaning of the text and extracting the desired content from these sources, establishing a relationship between the content and describing and analyzing and criticizing them, and discussing and concluding the collected information.
Discussion
Edward Said criticizes the concept of "Orientalism". Because this concept does not mean knowing the East, but rather a school and an ideology based on which it considers the "white male Western person" as a "subject" and "non-Western man" as an "object". In addition, under the pretext of civilizing, he colonizes him. Using the tradition of post-structuralisms, Eduard Said tries to formulate his situation in the first step; therefore, relying on the concept of "ontological rebellion" in the ontological field, he rejects the western subject and gives himself the right of agency and subjectivity. This will lead to the second step, which is the attempt to "decentralize the West". Based on this, the current structure of the world should be revised so that other countries and peoples can also claim the right of centralization.
Result
Edward Said uses the same concepts of the Eurocentric and Orientalist tradition to decentralize the West, but these concepts do not make it possible to pass through the West. Therefore, it is necessary to turn to an "epistemological rebellion". Other thinkers such as Shariati, Al-Attas, etc. have tried to establish epistemological rebellion, but this effort was not enough. We can achieve non-Eurocentric concepts by reconstructing our heritage and intellectual tradition. The decentralization of the West is achieved when, in addition to ontological and epistemological rebellions, these rebellions occur in other fields as well. The Iranian revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini's theory of "velayat Faqih" is the most obvious extension of these rebellions in the field of practice.