Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

• Mohammad Reza Dehshiri

Faculty of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

While shedding light on the evolution of the multidisciplinary approach to orientalist studies in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, this paper elaborates on the interdisciplinary approach to post-colonial studies in the second half of the 20^th Century with a historical and analytical perspective. The paper is also intended to explain the transitional phase from multicultural studies to intercultural studies as well as the new methodological developments from a multidisciplinary approach to an interdisciplinary one as well as to examine the outcomes of these developments in the orientalist analyses of western academicians and the interactions between different disciplines in post-colonial studies. In response to the question as to “why has the orientalism been basically based on a multidisciplinary approach while the post-colonial studies have tended to rely on an interdisciplinary one”, this paper will make a review of the introvert factors caused by the assimilatory and multifaceted nature of scientific orientalism as well as the extrovert factors caused by the influence of colonial powers on the western orientalists in studying the economic, social, cultural, political, historical and literary aspects of the oriental societies. Furthermore, the paper aims at providing an explanatory method for identifying the causes of an effort for an intercultural approach towards post-colonial studies by taking into consideration and emphasizing on field research through establishing an epistemological and methodological linkage between aesthetics, etymology, anthropology, sociology, geography and political science as well as interdisciplinary cooperation among indigenous orientalists.

Keywords

• Orientalism
• Post-colonial Studies
• Interdisciplinary
• multidisciplinary
• Multicultural Studies
• Intercultural Studies
• Cultural Otherness