Edward Said, the renowned literary and cultural critic and passionately engaged intellectual, is one of our era's most formidable, provocative, and important thinkers. For more than three decades his books, which include Culture and Imperialism, Peace and Its Discontents, and the seminal study Orientalism, have influenced not only our worldview but the very terms of public discourse.The Edward Said Reader includes key sections from all of Said's books, from the groundbreaking 1966 study of Joseph Conrad to his new memoir, Out of Place. Whether he is writing of Zionism or Palestinian self-determination, Jane Austen or Yeats, music or the media, Said's uncompromising intelligence casts urgent light on every subject he undertakes. The Edward Said Reader will prove a joy to the general reader and an indispensable resource for scholars of politics, history, literature, and cultural in short, of all those fields that his work has influenced and, in some cases, transformed.
(Arabic Profile إدوارد سعيد) Edward Wadie Said was a professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies. A Palestinian American born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S. Army veteran.
Educated in the Western canon, at British and American schools, Said applied his education and bi-cultural perspective to illuminating the gaps of cultural and political understanding between the Western world and the Eastern world, especially about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East; his principal influences were Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Michel Foucault, and Theodor Adorno.
As a cultural critic, Said is known for the book Orientalism (1978), a critique of the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism—how the Western world perceives the Orient. Said’s model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse of researchers in literary theory, literary criticism, and Middle-Eastern studies—how academics examine, describe, and define the cultures being studied. As a foundational text, Orientalism was controversial among the scholars of Oriental Studies, philosophy, and literature.
As a public intellectual, Said was a controversial member of the Palestinian National Council, because he publicly criticized Israel and the Arab countries, especially the political and cultural policies of Muslim régimes who acted against the national interests of their peoples. Said advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state to ensure equal political and human rights for the Palestinians in Israel, including the right of return to the homeland. He defined his oppositional relation with the status quo as the remit of the public intellectual who has “to sift, to judge, to criticize, to choose, so that choice and agency return to the individual” man and woman.
In 1999, with his friend Daniel Barenboim, Said co-founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, based in Seville, which comprises young Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab musicians. Besides being an academic, Said also was an accomplished pianist, and, with Barenboim, co-authored the book Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (2002), a compilation of their conversations about music. Edward Said died of leukemia on 25 September 2003.
Writing a review on a collection of literature from such a distinguished man as Edward Said is daunting to say the least. First and foremost because the man himself was an extraordinary literary critic in his own right. He was that and much more. Said exemplifies my idea of the ultimate intellectual. He possessed a gifted knowledge of many different fields, and was able to constantly astound with his perceptive mind, unique ways of viewing a particular topic, and from being on the outside as it were.
Said always viewed himself as an exile, and rightfully so. He was never really at home anywhere, mostly because his homes shifted from Egypt to Palestine, Lebanon and ultimately America. These moves were out of necessity and not choice. Said’s views of the exile were what shaped his political views, and were in the end able to contribute positively to his keen interest in the literature of different cultures from around the world, including his newly adopted home country of the United States.
The Edward Said Reader is a collection of works masterfully put together by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin that showcases Said’s amazing cultural awareness, and how he ties his various interests into a collective whole, with each subject complimenting the other. His view on music incorporated the political as did his literary criticism. The view of the Orient, the other, the unfamiliar culture exemplified and shone a light on the xenophobia inherent in the differences between East and West. The grasp of the crisis in Palestine is told beautifully by someone perfectly fit to do so. With Said’s exile and his idea of traveling theory, he is able to tell the story from the perspective of someone who was displaced more than once in his life. That role is something to which most of his Palestinian admirers could relate.
I particularly enjoyed Said’s analysis of the intellectual that was constantly under the surface of the writings in this collection. I am nowhere near the level of the man, but I can relate to his ideas of the intellectual being a bit of an exile no matter where they are located. The idea of the exile being an outsider to society, marginalized and often discriminated against struck a chord with me. Through my own life of being a Vegas club kid to my political radicalization, I can feel the loneliness, abandonment and displacement in these later years that can come with free-thinking and not being a part of the prevailing view. Said made it quite clear that being an exile was more than just a geographical condition.
When it comes to the situation in Palestine, Said’s analysis has set the tone for every critic of Zionist policy to come along since his writings. Said, like Chomsky after him, was not only critical of the Zionists, but of what he saw as corruption in leaders such as Arafat and others. I was so glad that the idea of Traveling Theory was included in this reader as it is a brilliant way to compliment Said’s view of the Palestinian situation, and how as the years go on, the complexities of the conflict only multiply. These complexities will and are requiring constant re-examination of different ways of dealing with the crisis.
I don’t think one can consider themselves fully read on Western literature, music theory, Orientalism and the Palestinian crisis without considering the works of Said. This book is a perfect introduction to the works of the man, and a worthy tribute to such an outstanding and brave voice in cultural criticism.
My good friend Nicole recommended then lent me the Edward Said Reader after a wide-ranging conversation in the law school hallway. I took three months to read it partly because law school doesn’t leave as much time for pleasure-reading as I’d like, but, admittedly, this isn’t an easy read. Intellectual writers point out problems we’d rather not think about and they’re frequently hard to understand. Said fits both stereotypes and this will turn some people off. He expresses what are generally considered controversial views about U.S. colonialism and the plight of his fellow Palestinians which will raise hackles, especially with those who don’t believe in U.S. colonialism and equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. He builds on the work of other intellectuals who are well-known within the intellectual community, which leads him to couch deep concepts in single words, leaving them unexplained. I turned to the dictionary and other resources more than a couple times to understand some of his terminology.
What slowed me down more than anything else though were my frequent pauses for deep thought. I contemplated how holding those feelings and concepts feels…to be so alienated in so many ways but at the same time to succumb to the irresistible urge to reach out to others and help them understand. He was Palestinian, but at the same time unable to fully share in their collective experience by virtue of his privileged youth, his Protestant upbringing, his exiled distance, and his intellectual skepticism. He directly influenced the mainstream of intellectual Western thought and yet was simultaneously rejected by it. He spoke for the common Palestinian using language and concepts many of them did not comprehend. It was through his expressions of contradiction and deep alienation – alienation which I sometimes feel, albeit perhaps a little less deservedly – that I gained what I think is a deeper understanding of his take on the lovely, savage mess that is human society.
Said’s frank writing, his revealing personal history, and the editors’ careful selection of his writings, make the Edward Said Reader a challenging but excellent window into the mind of one of the most compelling thinkers of the 20th century, and a great introduction to modern intellectual thought. Thank you, Nicole.
Philosophers and intellectuals tend to write for their peers and, in doing so, feel it necessary to present their bona fides by flexing their vocabularies. This can be very impressive but it does not make for great writing. That being said, Mr. Said is certainly well worth reading and this book provides a good anthology of his best work. His thoughts on the Palestinian issue are thought provoking and provide an important counterpoint to the received wisdom brought to us over the years by the mainstream media.
هناك عدم تكامل لجوانب الطرح المتعلق بالقضية الفلسطينية وهو ما يجب ان يميز أي كتاب تقرؤه وأنت تتوقع الأفضل لمجرد أن من كتبه مفكر عظيم كإدوارد سعيد، ذلك لان المنشورات البحثية يمكن إيجادها عبر غوغل او المكتبات الجامعية الالكترونية. لم أستطع إيجاد إجابة من خلال الكتاب على بضع تساؤلات مهمة حول الوضع في الأراضي المحتلة من منظور السياسة او الاجتماع، خصوصا المتعلق بالسلطة الفلسطينية والمفاوضات وأنها لا ترقى للطموحات الفلسطينية مع اعتباره ان المقاومة المسلحة او الإرهاب ليسا الحل وهي وجهة النظر التي تعكس الرأي العام الأمريكي الذي يمثله سعيد باعتباره أمريكيا
هذا لا يقلل من قيمة أفكار سعيد في هذا الكتاب، ومن اهمها اعتباره ان المجتمع المدني هو من سيحمل النضال الفلسطيني إلى حيث يجب..لا السياسيين.
هذا التقييم لا يغير من واقع ان إدوارد سعيد شخص عميق في تحليله ونقده وأنه من بين أكثر من تأثرت بهم، وأن فيما يكتب شيئا يمكن تعلمه يوما
A delightful collection of tricky, occasionally boring, frequently brilliant essays by someone whose mind is among the sharpest of knives. The experience here, when it happens, is the delicious moment of seeing a distinction put into words that you were not yourself able to previously perceive or articulate. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Great scholar and a great survey of his work. He is one of the few academics with whom I am always humbled and inspired by. His views were not just of the ivory tower (even though they had the highest academic merit), but appreciated the real struggles and tumult of people's lives.
I've been turning to Said again, given the events in Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East in general. His essays rarely let you down, and this collection of works is a substantive and approachable place from which to start or to which you can easily return.
An excellent collection of Said's work in its most concise form. The editors were both students of Said and the book ends with a great interview with him. I use this to teach... the best excerpts!
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get an idea of how Edward Said writes and what his work consists of. A great collection of important and moving essays.
Said is quite a fascinating, and indeed, towering figure. Indeed, many of his ideas have become common sense in plenty of fields in the humanities. Prior to this I’d read bits of Orientalism as well as his collection of lectures from Representations of the Intellectual, but this reader truly helps to give one a fuller picture of Said: his beliefs, his work, and his life. One can today, almost two decades after his death, get an almost flat portrait of him as only being focused on literary criticism from a purely and exclusively post-colonial perspective, but this reader takes excerpts from each of his diverse range of works and complies them with brief introductions. Of course, due to its nature as a reader, there is some things which are lacking- discussed in greater lengths in the original material, but one finds rather quite fascinating gems as well. Of course I had a small glimmering of his musical work, but the extent to which this influenced both his theoretical and critical work is quite fascinating, discussed both in an essay and in a portion of the closing interview. I also think the reader helps to dispel a lot of common myths regarding his beliefs, but I do wish they’d included some other items, but I understand their choices and desire to have a finely curated collection.
Seeking to broaden my political viewpoint, I read through parts of this book which was recommended to me by my son. I dove in to several of the themes here--Orientalism, literary criticism, his views on Palestine... I was struck by several things. Said has an intricate, academic style of writing which challenged (and sometimes confounded) me. He roots for the underdog--for the person displaced, marginalized, or dominated, and this offered a fresh, humble way of seeing some topics anew. And he offered me a new understanding of how the "West" has interpreted and portrayed the "East," and how we continue to perpetuate stereotypes today.
I already had a close view on the Palestinian struggle and that of an immigrant who lives between two lands, so I simply commiserated with Said on this topic. Reading his thoughts on the necessity of understanding the life of the writer when critiquing literature was interesting--but in many ways I disagree with the level of understanding he feels is necessary.
Overall I feel I was stretched, and that was the goal!
As someone previously unacquainted with Said's work, this was incredibly useful and I'll be reading many of the books presented here in the future. Incredible depth to every line of text. Could easily re-read again and be equally intrigued anew.
I didn't technically finish this book but read several chapters, most of which were taken from other books by Said like Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism, etc. Not necessary to read all in one go and a great sampling of his works.
He’s dense and long winded. He should telegraph his points more. I think the Reader could have a done a better job in introducing the structure of his pieces from various books to make up for this.
Certainly my preferred academic, this book represents his life work in a concise manner. His book Orientalism is a masterwork, and he has been a key figure in the Filistin peace process unfortunately without success.