The Orientalist in Orwell's Burmese Days: A Postcolonial Narratology Criticism

This study aims to criticize Orwell’s Orientalization in Burmese Days. It identifies and analyses the Orientalization in the organization of information within the novel.
This study uses dialectical methodology between theory and method in narrative study and postcolonial. Both theory and method are focalization, one of the specific domains from narrative discourse, with its method, and Orientalism, one of postcolonial theory, with one of its principal methods, strategic location.
This study shows that Orientalization in the novel hides in the organization of information. The information about, culture, characters, and Orwell's critique of imperialism convey in the description which often uses simile and purple passage with zero, internal, and external focalization so Orwell’s information through the narrator seems neutral and objective. Orientalization is found in the use of languages that are not the original language, they are Urdu and Burmese which are used by narrator and European characters, also English which is used by the indigenous one. In the description of the traditional dance of Burma, Orientalization is acted by the narrator obscurely and the main characters prominently. The simile in European and indigenous characters’ descriptions is not the same, the indigenous one describes by using a negative simile. In Orwell's critique of imperialism that is conveyed through the narrator and main characters is contained Orientalization which is indicated by the distinction of civilized one (the Occident) and uncivilized one (the Orient) in every beginning and end of his critique.
The conclusion of this study is Orientalization in Burmese Days hides in the strict organization of information. Focalization is necessary to find out how precisely the narrative structure of this novel so the Orientalization can be revealed.