The Transformation of Ion Perdicaris to Eden Perdicaris as a Retro Scenario and Orientalist Codes in Art

Abstract

Based on mainly the perspectives of three thinkers, Walter Benjamin, Edward Said, and Jean Baudrillard, in this study, beyond the general perception and “Barbarian” and “Berbers,” the film The Wind and The Lion, which was written and directed by John Milius in 1975 and inspired by a “real” life event that happened in 1904, and the transformation of the man kidnapped in real life, Ion Perdicaris, into a woman, Eden Pedecaris, in the film, and the relationship of this transformation with the “orient” perception, the economic and political infrastructures of this relationship, its roots in Orientalist painting will be discussed through intertextual reading and discourse analysis. The analysis of this film's discourse sustains its importance since not only film scholars but also audiences can receive the discourse of the film via new media presently.