[The Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) brings you this bouquet of pieces, including peer-reviewed articles, on, or by, Edward Said. These items in our database were published in peer-reviewed academic journals for the years 1979-2021. For more bouquets, visit www.mespi.org.]
Palestinians in the Aftermath of Beirut
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 12, Issue 2 (1983)
Abstract: There is slight consolation for Palestinians in the realization that Israel did not achieve all its war aims in Lebanon. The accelerating propaganda efforts at convincing the world-the US especially-that Israel delivered Lebanon to the "free" world appear more preposterous everyday, but totally in keeping with the ingrained Israeli habit of supplanting reality with fantasy. True, the immense physical and human damage done to Lebanon has receded in memory some- what; and true also there is a meliorist and euphemistic aura surrounding Lebanon's new president, who aspires to being more a national president and more a symbol of unity than either the tradition of his predecessors or of his party might allow. But in the main Israel has not been able to turn its military successes into anything resembling a clear-cut political victory. The universal opprobrium heaped upon Begin and Sharon for the siege of Beirut and the Sabra-Shatila massacres, the intensified international awareness of the Palestinian issue, the minimal but definite steps forward taken by President Reagan and the Arab heads of state: all these are indications that Likud's plan for a Palestinian final solution failed to sweep the board clean to Israel's advantage. As the war's bill of $2.5 billion is presented by Israel to the US, it is likely that more rather than less regrets about the whole episode will be expressed; talk of the war's "opportunities for creative diplomacy" have long since given way both to disapproval of Israel's peremptory annexationist militarism and to a widening of the chasm between US and Israeli interests. This chasm corresponds with the difference between a major imperial and a minor sub-imperial power. Nevertheless, all this will not necessarily be to the Palestinians' advantage. The all-but-formal annexation of the West Bank and Gaza proceeds unchecked; the dispersal of more Palestinians to more places continues; the isolation of individual Palestinians, and of Palestinians collectively, increases the difficulty of their anomalous status; statehood seems further away.
Permission to Narrate
By: Edward Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 13, Issue 3 (1984)
Abstract: Not available
The Burdens of Interpretation and the Question of Palestine
By: Edward Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 16, Issue 1 (1986)
Abstract: Not available
Irangate: A Many-Sided Crisis
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 16, Issue 4 (1987)
Abstract: Not available
The Shultz Meeting with Edward Said and Ibrahim Abu-Lughod
By: Edward Said, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 17, Issue 4 (1988)
Abstract: Not available
Orientalism Revisited: An Interview with Edward W. Said
By: Edward W. Said, James Paul
Published in Middle East Report Volume 18, Issue 150 (1988)
Abstract: Not available
From Intifadah to Independence
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Middle East Report Volume 19, Issue 158 (1989)
Abstract: Not available
On Palestinian Identity: A Conversation with Salman Rushdie
By: Edward Said
Published in New Left Review Issue 160 (1986)
Abstract: Not available
Identity, Negation and Violence
By: Edward Said
Published in New Left Review Issue 171 (1988)
Abstract: Not available
Reflections On Twenty Years of Palestinian History
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 20, Issue 4 (1991)
Abstract: Not available
Symbols Versus Substance: A Year After the Declaration of Principles
By: Edward W. Said, Mouin Rabbani
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 24, Issue 2 (1995)
Abstract: Not available
Projecting Jerusalem
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 25, Issue 1 (1995)
Abstract: Not available
The Real Meaning of the Hebron Agreement
By: Edward W. Said
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 26, Issue 3 (1997)
Abstract: This essay argues that despite the media hype that surrounded the January 1997 signing of the Hebron protocol, the agreement has done nothing to alter Israel's de facto control over the West Bank and Gaza and in fact demonstrates the Palestinian Authority's acquiescence in continuing Israeli sovereignty. Meanwhile, the media have remained silent about the continuing deterioration of daily life in the Palestinian territories. The author proposes that Palestinians themselves can help to end this silence by organizing an information campaign to expose the inequalities of life in the West Bank and Gaza.
Edward Said's Re‐Presentation of the intellectuals
By: Hamid Dabashi
Published in Middle East Critique Volume 3, Issue 5 (1994)
Abstract: Not available
On The Margins of A Memoir: A Personal Reading of Said's Out of Place
By: Nadia Gindi, Edward Said
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 20 (2000)
Abstract: Not available
A New Cosmopolitanism? V.S. Naipaul and Edward Said
By: Joan Cocks
Published in Constellations Volume 7, Issue 1 (2000)
Abstract: Not available
America's Last Taboo
By: Edward Said
Published in New Left Review Issue 6 (2000)
Abstract: Not available
The Desertions of Arafat
By: Edward Said
Published in New Left Review Issue 11 (2001)
Abstract: Not available
Edward Said: A Tribute
By: Nubar Hovsepian
Published in Middle East Report Volume 33, Issue 229 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Remembering Edward Said
By: Tariq Ali
Published in New Left Review Issue 24 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Being Grateful to Edward Said
By: NATALIE ZEMON DAVIS
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Requiem for Edward Said
By: LINDA HUTCHEON
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
In Memoriam: Edward W. Said
By: GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Edward Said: A Tribute
By: ILAN PAPPE
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Reflections on Edward Said: A Caribbean Perspective
By: MELANIE NEWTON
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Remembering Said
By: ANIA LOOMBA
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 23, Issue 1 (2003)
Abstract: Not available
Memory, Inequality, and Power: Palestine and The Universality of Human Rights
By: Edward Said
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 24 (2004)
Abstract: Stressing the role of collective memory in the survival of Palestinian people in the diaspora, Said argues for acknowledging the rights of the Palestinians as a people, since human rights are universal. No earthly or divine dispensation could excuse oppressing a people by pleading past victimhood. Against the reductive notion of clash of civilizations, Said espouses knowing the Other and recognizing the historical rights of Palestinians in their own country. Knowledge becomes in this quest, a tool of understanding and recognition. Said advocates replacing antagonism with reconciliation following the model of post-apartheid South Africa. For him, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict cannot be resolved by military means, but by democratic admission of equality and by inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness. The Palestinian past cannot be erased and should not be dismissed if a genuine peace is sought. /
Edward W. Said (1935-2003)
By: Andrew N. Rubin
Published in Arab Studies Quarterly Volume 26, Issue 4 (2004)
Abstract: Not available
The Idea of Palestine in The Lives and Works of Abu-Lughod and Said
By: Ghada Hashem Talhami
Published in Arab Studies Quarterly Volume 26, Issue 4 (2004)
Abstract: Not available
Orientalism Once More
By: Edward Said
Published in Development and Change Volume 35, Issue 5 (2004)
Abstract: Not available
Word and Reed As Sword and Shield: A Laudation for Edward Said
By: Ashwani Saith
Published in Development and Change Volume 35, Issue 5 (2004)
Abstract: Not available
A Musical and Personal Collaboration: Daniel Barenboim Talks About Edward Said
By: Sabry Hafez
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 33, Issue 3 (2004)
Abstract: Although we learn from his memoirs that Edward Said renounced his thoughts of a career as a concert pianist in his late teens, music remained a lifelong passion. For many years opera critic for The Nation and author of numerous articles on musical theory as well as a book, Musical Elaborations, he gave informal concerts until the last decade of his life and played until the very end. Said's intense intellectual engagement with music, and his particular interest in “performance,” laid the ground for his close friendship over more than a decade with Daniel Barenboim. Born in Argentina and raised in Israel, Barenboim is one of the leading concert pianists and conductors of the second half of the twentieth century. He is currently music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (since 1991) and of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin (since 1992).
Edward Said and Anthropology
By: Nicholas B. Dirks
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 33, Issue 3 (2004)
Abstract: Since the publication of Orientalism in 1978, it has been virtually impossible to study the colonial world without explicit or implicit reference to Edward Said's charge that the sources, basic categories, and assumptions of anthropologists, historians of the colonial world, and area studies experts (among others) have been shaped by colonial rule. This article charts Said's influence on anthropology, tracing both anthropology's engagement with colonialism and the frequently ambivalent (and sometimes defensive) responses within the field to Said's critique. The article also considers the larger terrain of Said's engagement with the field, from his concern about its “literary” turn of the 1980s to his call for U.S. anthropology explicitly to confront the imperial conditions not only of its epistemological inheritance but also of its present position. Though Said's direct writings on the discipline have been limited, the article concludes that anthropology has not only learned a great deal from Said's critique, but has become one of the most important sites for the productive elaboration and exploration of his ideas.
Edward Said and Comparative Literature
By: Timothy Brennan
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 33, Issue 3 (2004)
Abstract: Between 1969 and 1979, Edward Said redefined American comparative literature, coining phrases, supplying a new critical pantheon (Vico, Schwab), and, above all, devising a method. Falling between generations and facing two different kinds of continental èmigrè—one philological, the other textualist—Said outmaneuvered the latter by reinterpreting the former. In a two-pronged move, he unleashed an arsenal of arguments against both new critical formalism and its latter-day avatars in “theory.” With these arguments, his authority was penetrating and atmospherically felt as he chipped away at the edifice of traditional comparative literature by emphasizing the situatedness of form and the transitive intelligence of humanist intellectuals.
The “Postcolonial” in Translation: Reading Said in Hebrew
By: Ella Shohat
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 33, Issue 3 (2004)
Abstract: The essay focuses on the “travel” of various debates—orientalism, postcolonialism, postzionism—between the U.S. and Israel, between one institutional zone and political semantics and another. Through a comparative history of these critical intellectual debates, the author considers some key moments and issues in the “translation” of Said's ideas into Hebrew. The reception of Said's work is engaged in its contradictory dimensions, especially in liberal-leftist circles, where the desire to go-beyond-Said offers some ironic twists. The issues examined include: the nature of the “post” in the concepts of the “post-colonial” and “post-Zionism”; the problem of “hybridity” and “resistance” in the land of partitions and walls; and the mediation in Israel, via the Anglo-American academy, of the “subaltern” intellectual.
The Intellectual Life of Edward Said
By: Joseph Massad
Published in Journal of Palestine Studies Volume 33, Issue 3 (2004)
Abstract: This essay examines Edward Said's philosophy of intellectual life and what an intellectual vocation entails. Said's major contribution, Orientalism, is discussed in light of his own concept of “traveling theory” and its impact on various disciplines, especially postcolonial studies. Said's views on Palestine and the Palestinians are also elaborated and contextualized in his own oeuvre. Finally, the essay discusses Said's interest in musical performance and attempts to read his work “musically,” showing how all his interests are part of a larger whole that constitutes his intellectual legacy.
Third World Quarterly 25th Anniversary Issue: Dedicated to The Memory of Edward W. Said (1935–2003)
By: Richard Falk
Published in Third World Quarterly Volume 25, Issue 1 (2004)
Abstract: Not available
A Bibliographical Guide to Edward Said
By: Yasmine Ramadan
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: This entry provides a bilingual bibliographical guide to Edward Said's writing (books and articles), works on him (books and journals), and sources of information on him (documentary films and websites). The Arabic section provides a list of translation and works on Said. The bibliography is extensive but not exhaustive. It is meant to help researchers consulting Edward Said's works in English and Arabic and/or exploring his reception in both languages./
Becoming Minor: On Some Significant Encounters With Edward Said
By: Ananya Jahanara
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: In these testimonies recalling Edward Said - as a childhood friend (Hoda Guindi), an academic colleague (Michael Wood), an inspiring mentor (Andrew Rubin), a captivating role model (Ananya Jahanara Kabir), and a tender father (Najla Said) - different faces of his persona surface: the playful child in Cairo, the youthful professor in a panel, the concerned advisor at Columbia University, the activist inspiring his audience in Calcutta and Cambridge, and the loving and affectionate father in New York. These pithy statements by friends, close relatives, and admirers-belonging to four continents - speak intimately and astutely of Said's extraordinary presence.
Edward Said and The Avant-Garde
By: David Lehardy Sweet
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: This article examines the interconnections between Said's critical oeuvre and a range of theoretical positions apropos of the European and American Avant-gardes. Questions raised in this article pertain to the critical deconstruction of generic distinctions between the work of art and the work of the critic; the role of the Avant-garde in identifying and critically subverting the institutional basis of aesthetic discourse; the ironic antagonisms between Said's discursive projects and the critical "heritage" of the Avant-garde. In light of the latter's proto-critical maneuvers in a variety of media (plastic, literary, musical), Said's work can be seen as expanding, enriching, and radically acclerating certain avant-garde initiatives, though he often subverts them in turn, conspicuously in respect of their postmodern inflections.
Edward Said, Cultural Politics, and Critical Theory (An Interview)
By: Terry Eagleton
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: In this interview with Alif conducted in writing in the fall of 2004, Terry Eagleton responds to questions raised concerning his work and Said's. Eagleton describes his relationship with Said and how it evolved, the occasional intersection between memoir and literary criticism (as in the case of Said's Out of Place), the overlap between nationalism and anti-colonialism, the role of Michel Foucault, Erich Auerbach, Raymond Williams, and Theodor Adorno. Eagleton comments on Said's reading of Jane Austen and Joseph Conrad, Said's style and attitude towards different contemporary theoretical and critical trends, and Said's activism. He discusses his own position concerning 'politics of form,' 'aesthetic autonomy,' and the consequence of the 'privatisation of cultural production.'
Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmad, and Salman Rushdie: Resisting The Ambivalence of Postcolonial Theory
By: Youssef Yacoubi
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: This article examines Edward Said's personal, intellectual, and political affinities with Eqbal Ahmad and Salman Rushdie. Furthermore, it contrasts their common perspective with views held by two other notable South Asian intellectuals, V. S. Naipaul and Homi Bhabha. The author proposes that the noteworthy arguments of anti-imperialist theory, which translates most often in the struggle of Palestinians for self-determination, connect Said, Ahmad, and Rushdie. Said's views on Naipaul and Bhabha, shared by both Rushdie and Ahmad, are critically elaborated and contextualized within the major debates on the politics of postcolonial theory.
Edward Said, Humanism, and Secular Criticism
By: Yumna Siddiqi
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: Edward Said is best known for his examination of representations of the Orient in European literature-representations that, he argues, legitimated colonial rule. While he takes a critical view of orientalist representations, he at the same time identifies himself as a scholar in the tradition of humanism. This article examines Said's complex relationship to humanism, and his attempt to articulate a new humanism that moves beyond parochialism and relates to what he called "secular criticism." It ends with an analysis of his late work, in which he affirms the need for a critical humanism in the face of the alienating effects of modernity and the resurgence of imperialism.
Last Words: Said, Freud, and Traveling Theory
By: Richard H. Armstrong
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: Said's Freud and the Non-European is an attempt to read Freud's Moses and Monotheism in the light of contemporary Israeli-Palestinian politics. Freud's excavation of Judaism shows its roots in Egyptian monotheism (the Aten cult of Akhenaten), and, therefore, Said argues, the impossibility of any foundationalist or essentialist view of Jewish (and therefore Israeli) identity. This article shows at length that Said projects unto Freud's book what he, himself, deems pertinent for the historical moment, embodying his very notion of "Traveling Theory." The reason for Said's projections is his profound identification with Freud, in particular, and secular Jewish thought, in general, which is at the heart of the "non-humanist humanism" he argued for in his Humanism and Democratic Criticism.
Notes On Edward Said's View of Michel Foucault
By: Ruben Chuaqui
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: This article explores Said's views of the contemporary French milieu, focusing on an important writer, equally open to wide-ranging interests, Michel Foucault. It analyzes the relationship among some recurring themes in Edward Said (culture, literature, reality, imagination, critical conscience, and intellectual praxis), in their explicit or implicit relation to Foucauldian thought. Foucault's relevance to the Saidian project is assessed with an explanation of how and why Said admired as well as criticized him.
On The University
By: Edward Said
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: Edward Said delivered this Address at the AUC Commencement in 1999, on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate degree. The academic space, he believes, is founded on freedom, which he commends in all its forms; opposing all restrictions and violation of that consecrated space. He expresses his belief that the University should be neither a political nor a government institution. It is precisely the role of contemporary academy, he asserts, to keep open the gap between itself and the institutions of society. Moving away from the image of a University where the academic professional and the public authority correspond to the sultan and potentate, Said believes in an alternative model where the academic world is a ceaseless quest for principles and knowledge, liberation, and finally justice.
Perspectives of Polyphony in Edward Said's Writings
By: Rokus De Groot
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: As a child, Edward Said attended a recital by Umm Kalthoum. He was greatly puzzled and disturbed by it, and missed above all counterpoint, to which he was used because of his early familiarity with Western classical music. Later in his life, he re-evaluated Umm Kalthoum's art. It would play a fundamental role for him in the formation of alternative ways of listening to Western music, emphasizing elaboration rather than development. In itself, her music functioned as a 'contrapuntal voice' to Western practices in Said's maturation as a listener and as a thinker. The article concentrates on polyphony, with its constitutive practices of counterpoint and harmony, as a key concept in the interpretation of Said's reflections on music, and a metaphor for humanistic emancipation. /شهد إدوارد سعيد حفلاﹰ موسيقياﹰ لأم كلثوم في طفولته، وهو الشيء الذي سبب له حيرة واضطراباﹰ، مفتقداﹰ، قبل كل شيء ﺁخر، الطباقية التي اعتادها من خلال معرفته بالموسيقى الكلاسيكية الغربية٠ وفيما بعد، أعاد سعيد تقييم فن أم كلثوم، الذي لعب دوراﹰ أساسياﹰ في تكوين أساليب بديلة للاستماع للموسيقى الغربية، مٶكداﹰ على الإسهاب بدلاﹰ من التطوير٠ وفي حد ذاتها، لعبت موسيقاها دور "الصوت الطباقي" للممارسات الغربية في نضج سعيد كمستمع وﻣﻔﻜّﺮ٠ ﺗﺮﻛّﺰ هذه المقالة على التعددية الصوتية، وما تتضمنه من الطباقية والتناغم، كمفهوم أساس في تأويل تأملات سعيد عن الموسيقى: التعددية الصوتية بوصفها ممارسة موسيقية، وبوصفها دليله الشخصي في الوصل بين الخلفيات الموسيقية والثقافية المتباينة، وبوصفها مجازاﹰ يعبّر عن التحرر الإنساني٠
Reconciliation Without Duress: Said, Adorno, and The Autonomous Intellectual
By: Moustafa Bayoumi
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: This article assesses the increasing importance of Theodor Adorno's writings on the work of Edward Said. It argues that Said's growing interest in Adorno derives substantially from his own political activism, particularly his principled opposition to the 1993 Oslo Accords. While it is true that he is drawn to Adorno for his music criticism and his own reflections on exile, Said also finds much common ground with Adorno's warnings against instrumental reason and his prescription that philosophy must retain its autonomy in the world to remain committed to human rescue. Said believed that true reconciliation-unlike that of the Oslo Accords-could only occur through the type of autonomous thought championed by Adorno, where intellectual autonomy refuses to trade away justice, equality, and human rights for false hope. /تتناول المقالة الأهمية المتعاظمة لكتابات ثيودور أدورنو في أعمال إدوارد سعيد٠ تسوق المقالة رأياﹰ مفاده أن ولع سعيد المتنامي بأدورنو نابع في الأساس من توجهه كناشط سياسي، وتحديداﹰ من موقفه المبدئي المعارض لاتفاقات أوسلو عام ٣٩٩١٠ ما من أدنى شك في أن سعيد انجذب إلى هذا المفكر نظراﹰ لإبداعاته في النقد الموسيقي وتأملاته حول المنفى، ولكن سعيد وجد أيضاﹰ أرضية مشتركة تجمعه بأدورنو فيما يخص تحذيراته التي أطلقها ضد المنطق الذرائعي، ودعوته إلى ضرورة احتفاظ الفلسفة باستقلالها في هذا العالم لكي تبقى دوماﹰ على التزامها حيال إنقاذ البشرية٠ رأى سعيد - على النقيض من اتفاقيات أوسلو - أن المصالحة الحقيقية لا تتحقق سوى من خلال الفكر المستقل الذي طالما ناصره ودافع عنه أدورنو، والقائم على مبدأ قوامه أن الاستقلال الفكري يرفض تماماﹰ مقايضة العدل والمساواة وحقوق الإنسان في مقابل الأمل الكاذب٠
Said and Achebe: Writers At The Crossroads of Culture
By: Fadwa Abdelrahman
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: At a crucial point in the history of culture, a new generation of educated "natives" were finally able to use the tools they acquired through their encounter with the West to decode the deep-seated images of colonial representation and re-code new images of the self in order to escape stultification. In this context, Achebe's article "An Image of Africa" (1975) became one of the first post-colonial attempts at re-reading canonical English texts (even before the term post-colonial was coined). In 1978, Said published his seminal book Orientalism theorizing many of the points raised by Achebe in his article. This study aims at examining the similarities and differences between these two influential writers who are situated both spatially and temporally at what Achebe calls "the crossroads of culture."
Said, Orientalism, and Japan
By: Daisuke Nishihara
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: The first Japanese translation of Edward W. Said's Orientalism appeared in 1986. The theory of Orientalism, once brought into the East Asian context, becomes more complicated. There is no doubt that Japan is geographically situated in the Orient, but, in a political sense, it has tried to become a "Western" nation. Thus, the country has characteristics of both the Orient and the Occident. What does Japanese Orientalism ask in return? How does the discussion of Japanese Orientalism contribute to the general theory? This article offers an analysis of, and perspectives on, the impact of Said's work on Japanese intellectuals.
The Late Style of Edward Said
By: Stathis Gourgouris
Published in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Volume 25 (2005)
Abstract: Edward Said's interest in "late style"-a concept drawn from Theodor Adorno's account of Beethoven's late music-was explicitly channeled to a book project that was not, however, completed in his lifetime. Yet, a careful reading of Said's completed late work-the book on humanism and the political journalism of his last two years-reveals an exercise in late style as such: in other words, the work of an intransigent and restless spirit, unsatisfied with the certainties pronounced in his name, and focused on a mode of interrogation against the grain of identity-what the author called the task of secular criticism
Edward Said and The Political Present
By: Nadia Abu El-Haj
Published in American Ethnologist Volume 32, Issue 4 (2005)
Abstract: This article offers a reading of Edward Said's legacy. It engages Said's scholarly and political insights, on the one hand, and his vision of and life as an intellectual, on the other hand. The article focuses on his broader conceptual and methodological interventions, his analysis of the politics of empire (in the Middle East), and his passionate attachment to the question of Palestine. It also contextualizes Said's work in light of the contemporary political moment, arguing that he and that for which he is seen to stand have emerged as key flash points in the latest U.S. culture wars.
Risky Business: Edward Said as Literary Critic
By: Rebecca Saunders
Published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 25, Issue 3 (2005)
Abstract: Not available
Students, Teachers, and Edward Said: Taking Stock of Orientalism
By: Joshua Teitelbaum, Meir Litvak
Published in Middle East Review of International Affairs Volume 10, Issue 1 (2006)
Abstract: Since the publication of Orientalism in 1978, Edward Said's critique has become the hegemonic discourse of Middle Eastern studies in the academy. While Middle Eastern studies can improve, and some part of Said's criticism is valid, it is apparent that the Orientalism critique has done more harm than good. Although Said accuses the West and Western researchers of "essentializing" Islam, he himself commits a similar sin when he writes that Western researchers and the West are monolithic and unchanging. Such a view delegitimizes any search for knowledge--the very foundation of the academy. One of Said 's greatest Arab critics, Syrian philosopher Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, attacked Said for the anti-intellectualism of this view. Since German and Hungarian researchers are not connected to imperialism, Said conveniently leaves them out of his critique. Said also ignores the positive contribution that researchers associated with power made to the understanding of the Middle East. Said makes an egregious error by negating any Islamic influence on the history of the region. His discursive blinders-- for he has created his own discourse--led him before September 11, 2001 to denigrate the idea that Islamist terrorists could blow up buildings and sabotage airplanes. Finally, Said's influence has been destructive: it has contributed greatly to the excessively politicized atmosphere in Middle Eastern studies that rejects a critical self-examination of the field, as well as of Middle Eastern society and politics.
Edward Said and Contrapuntal Reading: Implications for Critical Interventions in International Relations
By: Geeta Chowdhry
Published in Millenium: Journal of International Studies Volume 36, Issue 1 (2007)
Abstract: Notwithstanding the prominence accorded to Edward Said in the fields of history, anthropology, cultural studies, literary criticism, women's studies, and other disciplines, he remains a rather neglected figure in the field of international relations (IR) with the notable exception of postcolonial and some critical scholarship. This article seeks to attend to this neglect and highlights the work of Edward Said and its implications for the field of IR. I discuss two overlapping categories in the work of Edward Said that have implications for interrogating received knowledge in IR - Culture, Identity and Representation, and Nation and Memory. The essay concludes with Said's discussion of intellectual responsibility and what it means for scholars in the field of IR. The concepts of contrapuntality and fugue, which Said borrows from Western classical music, weave through his arguments and are central to his unique articulation and development of the categories listed above. Arguably, a contrapuntal analysis has significant implications for `responsible scholarship' and teaching in IR.
Empire and Global Public Intellectuals: Reading Edward Said As An International Relations theorist
By: Shampa Biswas
Published in Millenium: Journal of International Studies Volume 36, Issue 1 (2007)
Abstract: This essay begins by expressing a concern with the much-too-easy retrieval of empire in the writings of many commentators across the political spectrum. I suggest, via a reading of Edward Said as an International Relations theorist, that part of our failing, as scholars of the global, to prevent such a resurrection lies in a discipline too focused on depoliticized `technocratic expertise' and overly `nationalistic' in its orientation. What Edward Said has to offer IR scholars, I argue, is a `global intellectual posture' — a sensibility that involves a critical but hospitable awareness of an inhabited and co-habited world and an intellectual approach that provides a rigorous and more complete approach to `the global'. Said's thoughts on humanism help situate the most marginal and underrepresented bodies firmly and concretely into the center of an IR that that has been mostly `greatpower' focused in the questions and issues it attends to. Said's discussions of `contrapuntality' provides a method that enables the study of simultaneous and mutually constitutive (of East and West, North and South) histories against the linear, developmentalist (from Westphalia to Globalization) historical narratives inherited by most IR scholars. Understanding our contemporary international relations as a product of a history of cultural encounters (in which colonialism played a key part) would make it possible, for students and scholars of IR, to articulate a global imaginary that is sensitive to both power and difference.
Forum: Edward W. Said and International Relations
By: Sheila Nair
Published in Millenium: Journal of International Studies Volume 36, Issue 1 (2007)
Abstract: Not available
Said's Exile: Strategic Insights for Postcolonial Feminists
By: L.H.M. Ling
Published in Millenium: Journal of International Studies Volume 36, Issue 1 (2007)
Abstract: Exile for Edward Said was a painful yet enriching condition. Indeed, exile accounted for his extraordinary productivity in theorising about and strategising for social justice for the displaced, the marginalised, the silenced. He spoke specifically on the exile of Palestinians from their historic homes but his insights apply to all subjects and subjectivities suffering from hegemonic oppression and stultification. Drawing on his volume, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2001), this article extends upon Said's understandings of exile to devise strategies for a postcolonial-feminist emancipatory agenda.
Traveling in Paradox: Edward Said and Critical International Relations
By: Raymond Duvall, Latha Varadarajan
Published in Millenium: Journal of International Studies Volume 36, Issue 1 (2007)
Abstract: In this article, we argue that those who aspire to `critical' international relations would be well served by importing inspiration from Edward Said's work, particularly in drawing examples from his negotiation of intellectual paradoxes and tensions. While several scholars are sharply critical of Said for adopting apparently contradictory theoretical positions, we suggest, by contrast, that his negotiation of those apparent contradictions is one of the lasting contributions of his work, not least as a model that might productively `travel' to critical international relations. Specifically, we develop two features of his treatment of paradox. First is his `hermeneutic of “worldliness”', a spirit of `secular' criticism that is socially, politically, morally situated, self-ironic, free from service to any `God', any universal singularity, but expressive of a moral-political community. Second is an uncommon articulation of the postcolonial and the global, a suturing together of a global moment of humanism and a postcolonial moment of listening to and hearing—contrapuntally reading—the voices of/from alternative loci of enunciation. These should be constitutive principles for critical international relations, which currently often fails to acknowledge their importance.
Did Edward Said Really Speak Truth to Power?
By: Efraim Karsh, Rory Miller
Published in Middle East Quarterly Volume 15, Issue 1 (2008)
Abstract: Not available
Deconstructing Edward Said
By: A.J. Caschetta
Published in Middle East Quarterly Volume 16, Issue 1 (2009)
Abstract: Not available
Orientalism in a globalised world: Said in the twenty-first century
By: Ahmad H. Sa’di
Published in Third World Quarterly Volume 42, Issue 11 (2021)
Abstract: From its publication in 1978, Edward Said?s magnum opus Orientalism has generated fierce and unrelenting debates regarding its epistemology and scope, and the interpretive validity of its Western cultural representations of the self and other. Since then, however, the world has become increasingly governed by different sets of assumptions, ideologies, relations of production and reproduction, and matrixes of power relations. This article considers whether orientalism has kept its hold on Western public opinion, media presentations, political elites, and sections of the scholarly community?s mode of thinking in the current neo-liberal, globalised, digitalised and securitised world. It also considers whether its mutation has shifted to engender a paradigmatic change and argues that alongside the old-style orientalism, a more sophisticated, subtle, and up-to-date perspective has appeared. Although its emphases, concerns and methodologies might represent a certain departure from old orientalist dogmas, its objective seems to remain largely intact.
