Representaton of Orientalism in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Lost in Translation"
Introduction
Representations of other countries and cultures in the West has often been far from accurate and over-relying on framing the culture rather than assessing it. This is particularly true about Orientalism in Hollywood movies. The good examples of it are Memoirs of a Geisha and Lost in Translation, the premiere of which immediately sparked some controversies. Some have perceived both movies as indulging Orientalism, while others defended them as more innocent. The essay addresses the term “Orientalism” in great detail, analyzing the historical interactions between West and East and uncovering the reasons manifestations of Orientalism can signify communication gaps between cultures. Memoirs of a Geisha and Lost in Translation are then analyzed for signs of Orientalism. It is found, that Memoirs of a Geisha do reinforce certain stereotypes which could be classified as Orientalist, particularly overly sexualizing the image of geisha and depicting East and West and antithetical, while Lost in Translation falls short of manifesting Orientalism since the Japanese culture is not the main topic of the film, which focuses on personal drama among two American characters.
The concept of “Oriental”
Before establishing whether Memoirs of a Geisha and Lost in Translation can be accused of exploiting the Oriental stereotypes, the term itself must be revisited and established with more clarity. Since the words “Oriental” and “Orientalism” are used in variety of discourses, from philosophy to contemporary culture and entertainment, the definitions often vary and appear to be applied broadly. This might create confusion in regard to what “Orientalism” means and why alleged manifestation of Orientalism in Memoirs of a Geisha and Lost in Translation indicates a problem which must be addressed.
Taking a look in the dictionary, the word “orient” simply means the East (“Orient”, n.d.). The term is derived from the Latin based orient, which itself is rooted in a word oriri, which meant “to rise” (“Orient”, n.d.). The term “the East” in contemporary English can potentially be applied to the whole continent of Asia as well as any part of it. In a more restricted sense, however, the term is used to describe the Southeast Asian region. Most often the word “Oriental” is used to tell about something related to China, Japan and Korea.
After turning to academic sources for more thorough research, more details emerge. The most commonly accepted definition of Orientalism is academic one. According to that definition, any professor, researcher or writer in a number of social sciences, including history, anthropology, sociology, philology, linguistic, cultural studies etc. who has the region of Orient as a focus of all or some of the studies, is an Orientalist; consequently, the research or teaching itself is called Orientalism (Said, 1979: 10). This definition is still popular today, although the specialists tend to prefer call their area of interests Oriental studies or be more specific, as to describing the region or the country they direct their academic interest to (Said, 1979: …
