Projection of Orientalist Elements

Abstract

The age of discovery is one of the most important periods in human history whose effects continue to be seen. In this period, the world was traveled by European sailors, new continents were discovered, and the discovered resources, work, and labor power flowed to Europe. All these developments have led to changes in the perception of the East in the West. Orientalism, defined as the manifestation of the West on the East, has found a place in art, literature, all kinds of written or printed media, especially cinema. The purpose of the study is to examine the domination structures starting with colonialism in the context of orientalism through the narratives of cinema in light of information. The narrative of 12 Years a Slave (2013) was examined using the discourse analysis method which is one of the qualitative text analysis. As a result, it was seen that the dialogues, images, character depictions, and the language used played an important role in the presentation of the othering; the white man was in the role of savior/god/good, and this situation was also supported by metaphors.