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Humanism and Democratic Criticism
In the radically changed and highly charged political atmosphere that has overtaken the United States--and to varying degrees the rest of the world--since September 11, 2001, the notion that cultures can harmoniously and productively coexist has come to seem like little more than a quaint fiction. In this time of heightened animosity and aggression, have humanistic values and democratic principles become irrelevant? Are they merely utopian fantasies? Or are they now more urgent and necessary than ever before?
Ever since the ascendancy of critical theory and multicultural studies in the 1960s and 1970s, traditional humanistic education has been under assault. Often condemned as the intolerant voice of the masculine establishment and regularly associated with Eurocentrism and even imperialism, the once-sacred literary canon is now more likely to be ridiculed than revered. While this seismic shift--brought on by advances in technological communication, intellectual specialization, and cultural sensitivity--has eroded the former primacy of the humanities, Edward Said argues that a more democratic form of humanism--one that aims to incorporate, emancipate, and enlighten--is still possible. A lifelong humanist, Said believed that self-knowledge is the highest form of human achievement and the true goal of humanistic education. But he also believed that self-knowledge is unattainable without an equal degree of self-criticism, or the awareness that comes from studying and experiencing other peoples, traditions, and ideas.
Proposing a return to philology and a more expansive literary canon as strategies for revitalizing the humanities, Said contends that words are not merely passive figures but vital agents in historical and political change. Intellectuals must reclaim an active role in public life, but at the same time, insularity and parochialism, as well as the academic trend toward needless jargon and obscurantism, must be combated. The "humanities crisis," according to Said, is based on the misperception that there is an inexorable conflict between established traditions and our increasingly complex and diversified world. Yet this position fails to recognize that the canonized thinkers of today were the revolutionaries of yesterday and that the nature of human progress is to question, upset, and reform. By considering the emerging social responsibilities of writers and intellectuals in an ever more interdependent world and exploring the enduring influence of Eric Auerbach's critical masterpiece, Mimesis, Said not only makes a persuasive case for humanistic education but provides his own captivating and deeply personal perspective on our shared intellectual heritage.
Ever since the ascendancy of critical theory and multicultural studies in the 1960s and 1970s, traditional humanistic education has been under assault. Often condemned as the intolerant voice of the masculine establishment and regularly associated with Eurocentrism and even imperialism, the once-sacred literary canon is now more likely to be ridiculed than revered. While this seismic shift--brought on by advances in technological communication, intellectual specialization, and cultural sensitivity--has eroded the former primacy of the humanities, Edward Said argues that a more democratic form of humanism--one that aims to incorporate, emancipate, and enlighten--is still possible. A lifelong humanist, Said believed that self-knowledge is the highest form of human achievement and the true goal of humanistic education. But he also believed that self-knowledge is unattainable without an equal degree of self-criticism, or the awareness that comes from studying and experiencing other peoples, traditions, and ideas.
Proposing a return to philology and a more expansive literary canon as strategies for revitalizing the humanities, Said contends that words are not merely passive figures but vital agents in historical and political change. Intellectuals must reclaim an active role in public life, but at the same time, insularity and parochialism, as well as the academic trend toward needless jargon and obscurantism, must be combated. The "humanities crisis," according to Said, is based on the misperception that there is an inexorable conflict between established traditions and our increasingly complex and diversified world. Yet this position fails to recognize that the canonized thinkers of today were the revolutionaries of yesterday and that the nature of human progress is to question, upset, and reform. By considering the emerging social responsibilities of writers and intellectuals in an ever more interdependent world and exploring the enduring influence of Eric Auerbach's critical masterpiece, Mimesis, Said not only makes a persuasive case for humanistic education but provides his own captivating and deeply personal perspective on our shared intellectual heritage.
154 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Edward W. Said
232 books4,230 followers(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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 28, 2023
"قال جورج بوش: إما ان تكون معنا وإما ان تكون ضدنا. نحن نمثّل الثقافة الإنسانية، وهم العنف والحقد. نحن المتحضرون وهم البرابرة. واختلط بهذا افتراضان خاطئان: يقول واحدهما ان حضارتهم (الإسلام) عميقة العداء لحضارتنا (الغرب) وهي اطروحة مبنية بشيء من الغموض على اطروحة صامويل هانتنغتن المبتذلة والاختزالية الى حد بائس عن صدام الحضارات."
خمس محاضرات، أعاد إدوارد سعيد تنقيحها قبل ارسالها للنشر: في الثلاث الأولى يتكلم عن الفلسفة الآنسية، الفخاخ التي وقع بعض الآنسنيين فيها مما أحادها عن طريقها ويستشهد بالكثير من معاصريه من أساتذة جامعات وينقد الكثير من الطروحات المختلفة. في الفصل الرابع يقدّم لنا كتاب "محاكاة" لإريش اورباخ وقراءته للقراءات المتعددة التي أجراها اورباخ وتعليقاته عليها وعلى وضع اورباخ ذاته في منفاه في اسطنبول او لاحقًا في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.
"الأنسنية هي بذل كافة جهود المرء في اللغة من أجل ان يفهم منتجات اللغة في التاريخ ويدرس لغات اخرى وتواريخ اخرى ويعيد ترجمتها ويتعاطى معها.... ليست الانسنية طريقة في تدعيم ما قد عرفناه وأحسسناه دومًا، وإنما هي وسيلة تساؤل وإقلاق وإعادة صياغة للكثير الكثير مما يقدم لنا اليوم على انه يقينيات مسلّعة، معلبة، مغلقة على النقاش ومشفرة على نحو غير نقدي."
الفصل الأخير عن الدور العمومي للكتّاب والمثقفين وأي أدوار يجب ان يضطلعوا بها، وههنا يقترب إدوارد سعيد كثيرًا من نعوم تشومسكي في عدم السكوت وفضح المستور.
"إن المثقف ما هو إلا ذاكرة مضادة. بمعنى ما، تملك خطابها المعاكس المخصوص الذي يمنع الضمير من أن يشيح بنظره او ان يستسلم للنوم."
كتاب صعب من دون شك، ويحتاج الى قراءة ثانية وثالثة.
July 28, 2019
Ця маленька книжечка зумовлена добою початку століття, читаючи її, постійно ловив себе на думці, наскільки нібито нещодавні події — теракти 9/11, війна з терором, вторгнення США в Ірак, протести у Сіетлі (хтось взагалі пам’ятає про них і яке їм значення надавали ліві? зараз смішно згадувати) - до яких звертається Саїд, видаються безмежно далекими, все-таки останні п’ять років світ живе в іншій епосі.
Зібрані тут лекції Саїда — рефлексії на тему, як себе поводити інтелектуалу серед подібних історичних викликів, приводять його до реабілітації гуманізму та філології. У них він бачить альтернативу двом панівним тоді в американських університетах тенденціям: відірваному від актуального життя елітаризму та постмодерністському релятивізму, що зводиться до аналізу дискурсів. Окрема лекція присвячена «Мімезису» Авербаха як взірцю актуального філологічного твору.
Деякі думки того часу зараз здаються наївними, наприклад: «У добу електронних засобів масової інформації такі міркування значною мірою втратили сенс, оскільки будь-хто, маючи комп'ютер і нормальний доступ до інтернету, здатен достукатися до в тисячі разів більшої кількості людей, ніж Свіфт, а також очікувати збереження написаного такою мірою, яку годі й уявити». Добре, що Саїд не дожив до моменту, коли інтернет майже знищив статус інтелектуала та експерта.
Зібрані тут лекції Саїда — рефлексії на тему, як себе поводити інтелектуалу серед подібних історичних викликів, приводять його до реабілітації гуманізму та філології. У них він бачить альтернативу двом панівним тоді в американських університетах тенденціям: відірваному від актуального життя елітаризму та постмодерністському релятивізму, що зводиться до аналізу дискурсів. Окрема лекція присвячена «Мімезису» Авербаха як взірцю актуального філологічного твору.
Деякі думки того часу зараз здаються наївними, наприклад: «У добу електронних засобів масової інформації такі міркування значною мірою втратили сенс, оскільки будь-хто, маючи комп'ютер і нормальний доступ до інтернету, здатен достукатися до в тисячі разів більшої кількості людей, ніж Свіфт, а також очікувати збереження написаного такою мірою, яку годі й уявити». Добре, що Саїд не дожив до моменту, коли інтернет майже знищив статус інтелектуала та експерта.
August 26, 2007
I’ve read many of Edward Said’s books over the years and he, like Noam Chomsky, is exemplary for his commitment as an intellectual to telling the truth about things that matter to a community that can do something about the injustices of our world.
According to Said’s prescriptive view, intellectuals ought to be fully engaged and critical with their society (and, I might add, one’s church, synagogue or mosque). Said believed that "[t]he intellectual’s role is dialectically, oppositionally, to uncover and elucidate the contest I referred to earlier, to challenge and negate both an imposed silence and the normalized quiet of unseen power wherever and whenever possible. For there is a social and intellectual equivalence between this mass of overbearing collective interests and the discourse used to justify, disguise, or mystify its workings while also preventing objections or challenges to it." Being in the middle of an occupation/quagmire/grave crime in Iraq, we must refuse such “normalized quiet.” Our task as writers, thinkers, teachers, and intellectuals is to de-legitimate, uncover, and de-mystify the prevailing discourse that democracy is being served, that we only have the interests of the Iraqi people at heart, and that Americans are incapable of committing war crimes.
In Humanism and Democratic Criticism, Said is broad-minded, practical, and cunning when he urges that we need “intellectual performances on many fronts, in many places, many sites that keep in play both the sense of opposition and sense of engaged participation.” Elsewhere, he is specific: “Think of the impressive range of opportunities offered by the lecture platform, the pamphlet, radio, alternative journals, occasional papers, the interview, the rally, the church pulpit, and the Internet, to name only a few.”
Much of Said’s work in this book is about recovering a viable form of humanism, linked, really, to classic philology, how to read carefully, critically, and as the word means, lovingly. As I read Said’s book, I thought of liberation theology as a kind of humanism, a radical humanism that was marginalized by the recently deceased pontiff because it made a serious and costly preferential option for the poor. Here’s the secular (though raised Christian Protestant) Said: "Humanism, I strongly believe, must excavate the silence, the world of memory, of itinerant, barely surviving groups, the places of exclusion and invisibility, the kind of testimony that doesn’t make it onto the reports but which more and more is about whether an overexploited environment, sustainable small economies and marginalized peoples outside as well as inside the maw of the metropolitan center can survive the grinding down and flattening out and displacement that are such preeminent features of globalization." This again brings me back to “dangerous memories,” resistance that takes the form of solidarity (with torture victims, with the victims of our occupations), and a utopian defiance that doesn’t grant the last word to corporate globalization, the empire’s latest guise. While some have claimed that liberation theology is finished, I recall that Jon Sobrino, a theologian from El Salvador, once offered that as long as oppression exists, there will be a liberation theology in resistance to that very oppression, a liberation theology that summons counter-testimonies to the triumphalism of the United States and its allies.
According to Said’s prescriptive view, intellectuals ought to be fully engaged and critical with their society (and, I might add, one’s church, synagogue or mosque). Said believed that "[t]he intellectual’s role is dialectically, oppositionally, to uncover and elucidate the contest I referred to earlier, to challenge and negate both an imposed silence and the normalized quiet of unseen power wherever and whenever possible. For there is a social and intellectual equivalence between this mass of overbearing collective interests and the discourse used to justify, disguise, or mystify its workings while also preventing objections or challenges to it." Being in the middle of an occupation/quagmire/grave crime in Iraq, we must refuse such “normalized quiet.” Our task as writers, thinkers, teachers, and intellectuals is to de-legitimate, uncover, and de-mystify the prevailing discourse that democracy is being served, that we only have the interests of the Iraqi people at heart, and that Americans are incapable of committing war crimes.
In Humanism and Democratic Criticism, Said is broad-minded, practical, and cunning when he urges that we need “intellectual performances on many fronts, in many places, many sites that keep in play both the sense of opposition and sense of engaged participation.” Elsewhere, he is specific: “Think of the impressive range of opportunities offered by the lecture platform, the pamphlet, radio, alternative journals, occasional papers, the interview, the rally, the church pulpit, and the Internet, to name only a few.”
Much of Said’s work in this book is about recovering a viable form of humanism, linked, really, to classic philology, how to read carefully, critically, and as the word means, lovingly. As I read Said’s book, I thought of liberation theology as a kind of humanism, a radical humanism that was marginalized by the recently deceased pontiff because it made a serious and costly preferential option for the poor. Here’s the secular (though raised Christian Protestant) Said: "Humanism, I strongly believe, must excavate the silence, the world of memory, of itinerant, barely surviving groups, the places of exclusion and invisibility, the kind of testimony that doesn’t make it onto the reports but which more and more is about whether an overexploited environment, sustainable small economies and marginalized peoples outside as well as inside the maw of the metropolitan center can survive the grinding down and flattening out and displacement that are such preeminent features of globalization." This again brings me back to “dangerous memories,” resistance that takes the form of solidarity (with torture victims, with the victims of our occupations), and a utopian defiance that doesn’t grant the last word to corporate globalization, the empire’s latest guise. While some have claimed that liberation theology is finished, I recall that Jon Sobrino, a theologian from El Salvador, once offered that as long as oppression exists, there will be a liberation theology in resistance to that very oppression, a liberation theology that summons counter-testimonies to the triumphalism of the United States and its allies.
April 4, 2023
How I would love for Said to be right. This gracefully written book beckons for a return to Humanism and to Philology to be the antidote to the cynicism and turmoil of the postmodern moment, to return to an understanding of the Humanities to what is a distinctly modern focus on the understanding of the space between the individual and the collective (and its history). Inside this collection of talks there is a beautiful and well-argued call for diversity in this vain, opposing the exclusive old, white stodginess of the cannon of literature that traditionally stained a western Philology, and the strict interpretation of the texts in all of its forms (particularly those in the Christian and Islamic faiths). A focus on that history and that of the Humanities in coordination with American intelligence forces during the Cold War present these fields in a fascinating historical and political light, which I found fascinating. Said's calls towards a felicitous Humanism, in conflict with the traditional orthodoxies are certainly appealing as a path of inquiry for the Humanities broadly construed.
And yet, I deeply struggle with this view for Critical inquiry that places such a priority on the individual, especially in this age that bears a much stronger resemblance to a Baudrillardian Hyperreality than reality generally conceived. It seems naive for Said to simultaneously recognize and grapple with the works of Foucault and Jameson and yet reject in many crucial ways the "antihumanist" turn that Structuralism and its successive schools of thought necessarily imply (10). And yet Said has always been known not just as an intellectual, but as an activist focused on the Palestinian cause. Said closed the book citing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and what is the impossibility of finding a fair solution:
Perhaps this is the place for Humanism, the place for the Human: a precarious, irreconcilable and irreducible place.Maybe this isn't just wishful thinking Maybe it is wishful thinking itself, irrational as it may be that makes space for the Human in our world that is rapidly detaching itself from even the myth of the referent, that can help us bring forth the just world we yearn for yet seems impossible to achieve.
===
This collection of essays is beautifully written. It is easy to consume, yet challenging to process. For those grappling with a sense of "poststructuralist dread," I would recommend a read. Said has taken another (much more modern) path while engaging with many of these same ideas, and I found it helpful (though not convincing) to see the ways in which he pulls and pushes from structuralist, postmodern, as well as modern threads.
Foucault, Michel
Frederic Jameson
And yet, I deeply struggle with this view for Critical inquiry that places such a priority on the individual, especially in this age that bears a much stronger resemblance to a Baudrillardian Hyperreality than reality generally conceived. It seems naive for Said to simultaneously recognize and grapple with the works of Foucault and Jameson and yet reject in many crucial ways the "antihumanist" turn that Structuralism and its successive schools of thought necessarily imply (10). And yet Said has always been known not just as an intellectual, but as an activist focused on the Palestinian cause. Said closed the book citing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and what is the impossibility of finding a fair solution:
I conclude with the thought that the intellectual's provisional home is the domain of an exigent, resistant, intransigent art into which, alas, once can neither retreat nor search for solutions. But only in that precarious exilic realm can one first truly grasp the difficulty of what cannot be grasped and then go forth to try anyway (144).
Perhaps this is the place for Humanism, the place for the Human: a precarious, irreconcilable and irreducible place.
===
This collection of essays is beautifully written. It is easy to consume, yet challenging to process. For those grappling with a sense of "poststructuralist dread," I would recommend a read. Said has taken another (much more modern) path while engaging with many of these same ideas, and I found it helpful (though not convincing) to see the ways in which he pulls and pushes from structuralist, postmodern, as well as modern threads.
Foucault, Michel
Frederic Jameson
August 13, 2015
الأنسنة و النقد الديمقراطي - كتاب كان أصله مجموعة محاضرات لإدوارد سعيد، يمكن تلخيص نقده للأنسنة في أن دراسة الأدب هي التي تمكن من تحرير قدرة الأنسني على نقد الذات، و السؤال هنا هو أن برامج الدراسات الأنسنية غير منفتحة و لها مركزية أوروبية شديدة، فكيف نستطيع فتح الآفاق إذا لنصل إلى نقد الذات؟ هذه المسائلة التي يطورها إدوارد سعيد على مدى الفصول الثلاثة الأولى جد بيداغوجية و فيها إنارات كثيرة من الأدب ة اللغة و الممارسة الإنسانية
الفصل الأخير أكثر جدلية إن صح التعبير، لما فيه من تعاريف للمثقف والكاتب و علاقتهما بالسياسة‘ وهو ما يؤدي إلى إدلاء إدوارد سعيد بمواقفه السياسية، و ما شدني هو طريقة تقديمه لحل الدولة الواحدة بالنسبة للقضية الفلسطينية، وهو من فلسطيني الشتات. إقراره بأنه لا أخلاقية في إعادة الترتيب الجغرافية للفلسطينيين، كما أنه لا أخلاقية في الطلب من الإسرائيليين الرحيل عن فلسطين السابقة بالكامل، يتطلب أمانة فكرية و شجاعة عظيمة
الفصل الأخير أكثر جدلية إن صح التعبير، لما فيه من تعاريف للمثقف والكاتب و علاقتهما بالسياسة‘ وهو ما يؤدي إلى إدلاء إدوارد سعيد بمواقفه السياسية، و ما شدني هو طريقة تقديمه لحل الدولة الواحدة بالنسبة للقضية الفلسطينية، وهو من فلسطيني الشتات. إقراره بأنه لا أخلاقية في إعادة الترتيب الجغرافية للفلسطينيين، كما أنه لا أخلاقية في الطلب من الإسرائيليين الرحيل عن فلسطين السابقة بالكامل، يتطلب أمانة فكرية و شجاعة عظيمة
March 27, 2017
Hümanizm ve entelektüalizmi kesiştiren eylem birlikteliklerini ortaya koyuyor Said. Bir kez daha entelektüelin hümanist ve aynı zamanda etrafında olup bitenin aktivist bir tanığı olma zorunluluğunu yineliyor. Auerbach'ın Mimesis'ini kritik ettiği bölümse ayrıca değerli.
December 15, 2023
P.46
Hay etimólogos que especulan con la idea de que la palabra "canon" (tal como aparece en "canónico") se deriva de la palabra árabe "qanun", que significa "ley" en el sentido vinculante y jurídico de esta palabra. Pero este es solo un sentido bastante restrictivo. El otro es un sentido musical: el de canon entendido como forma contrapuntística que se sirve de numerosas voces que se superponen según una pauta, por lo general, muy estricta. Dicho de otro modo: una forma que expresa movimiento, juego, descubrimiento, y, en sentido retórico, invención. Visto así, las humanidades canónicas, lejos de constituir tablas estrictas de normas y obras maestras inamovibles que nos intimidaran [...] estarán siempre abiertas a modificar sus combinaciones de sentido y significación; toda lectura e interpretación de una obra canónica la revive en el presente, nos proporciona una oportunidad para releerla y nos permite situar lo nuevo y lo moderno en un marco histórico más amplio cuya utilidad consiste en revelarnos que la historia es un proceso agónico que está todavía en construcción, en lugar de estar acabado y establecido de forma definitiva.
Hay etimólogos que especulan con la idea de que la palabra "canon" (tal como aparece en "canónico") se deriva de la palabra árabe "qanun", que significa "ley" en el sentido vinculante y jurídico de esta palabra. Pero este es solo un sentido bastante restrictivo. El otro es un sentido musical: el de canon entendido como forma contrapuntística que se sirve de numerosas voces que se superponen según una pauta, por lo general, muy estricta. Dicho de otro modo: una forma que expresa movimiento, juego, descubrimiento, y, en sentido retórico, invención. Visto así, las humanidades canónicas, lejos de constituir tablas estrictas de normas y obras maestras inamovibles que nos intimidaran [...] estarán siempre abiertas a modificar sus combinaciones de sentido y significación; toda lectura e interpretación de una obra canónica la revive en el presente, nos proporciona una oportunidad para releerla y nos permite situar lo nuevo y lo moderno en un marco histórico más amplio cuya utilidad consiste en revelarnos que la historia es un proceso agónico que está todavía en construcción, en lugar de estar acabado y establecido de forma definitiva.
January 9, 2018
A short, sweeping, lofty and idealistic treatise on the value that humanist thought can have in today's intellectual and political context.
I was very convinced by Said's impassioned defence of the rightful concerns of the humanities as residing in the investigation of history, values and human agency rather than the often jargon-heavy, identity-based fields of inquiry in contemporary academia that, by addressing only academics and like-minded people, end up becoming irrelevant. Said is aware of critiques of humanism throughout history as an elitist, Eurocentric thought current but he tries to redeem its core, "insisting, in this as well as other cases, that attacking the abuses of something is not the same as dismissing or entirely destroying that thing" (p. 13). He argues that various currents of humanism were distortions of its original spirit, and that a 21st century humanism needs to return to this core and also be truly democratic and multi-cultural. Humanist literary criticism, then, needs to be
All of the above sounds great to me, and I'm very much on board with Said's critique of obscure, indecipherable postmodern theorists with their endless digressions and unknowabilities and refusals of truth. BUT: The book 'fail' to make the ambitions outlined more concrete-I'm not sure it ever intended to do so. It is more a manifesto than a methods book, obviously, and perhaps I read it looking for the wrong things, and this left me feeling mildly unsatisfied at the end. Considering I am only beginning my intellectual journey for real while this book is Said's academic curtain call, this shouldn't surprise me. Because I share its fundamental ideals and perspective on what criticism should be, I would still call it an inspiring read and will likely revisit it in the future.
I was very convinced by Said's impassioned defence of the rightful concerns of the humanities as residing in the investigation of history, values and human agency rather than the often jargon-heavy, identity-based fields of inquiry in contemporary academia that, by addressing only academics and like-minded people, end up becoming irrelevant. Said is aware of critiques of humanism throughout history as an elitist, Eurocentric thought current but he tries to redeem its core, "insisting, in this as well as other cases, that attacking the abuses of something is not the same as dismissing or entirely destroying that thing" (p. 13). He argues that various currents of humanism were distortions of its original spirit, and that a 21st century humanism needs to return to this core and also be truly democratic and multi-cultural. Humanist literary criticism, then, needs to be
All of the above sounds great to me, and I'm very much on board with Said's critique of obscure, indecipherable postmodern theorists with their endless digressions and unknowabilities and refusals of truth. BUT: The book 'fail' to make the ambitions outlined more concrete-I'm not sure it ever intended to do so. It is more a manifesto than a methods book, obviously, and perhaps I read it looking for the wrong things, and this left me feeling mildly unsatisfied at the end. Considering I am only beginning my intellectual journey for real while this book is Said's academic curtain call, this shouldn't surprise me. Because I share its fundamental ideals and perspective on what criticism should be, I would still call it an inspiring read and will likely revisit it in the future.
January 3, 2018
A obra mais condensada e concisamente crítica de Edward Said, na qual discute a recuperação e a criação de um certo conceito de humanismo, para o "novo mundo". Said se referia ao contexto pós-Guerra Fria e 11 de Setembro, no qual estavam - e ainda estão - prementes as questões dos nacionalismos e internacionalismos, da autodeterminação dos povos (inclusive da Palestina, luta com a qual Said estava especialmente ligado, embora jamais, pela própria dificuldade da questão e sua responsabilidade enquanto intelectual - um dos pilares de sua noção de humanismo - tenha prescrito ou proposto soluções fáceis). Questões difíceis necessitam de respostas difíceis, elaboradas num longo contexto de prática filológica humanista, mas que mesmo assim possam ser afirmadas de uma maneira simples, ou melhor, transparente. Eis a proposta dessa obra-prima de Said.
December 12, 2010
كتاب جميل جداً ولكنه متشعب بطريقة متعبة.
June 19, 2016
أنهيته من فترة طويلة. جميل ومعقد كعادة إدوارد سعيد.
June 11, 2018
This book focuses a lot on the role of humanist academics and the traps that they can fall into when trying to assign value to texts and authors. He writes about the balance between understanding humans as individuals while also understanding all of the historical and social factors that led to them being the individual they are. He also reminds us of the importance of remembering that an individual has some agency. On pronouns he writes:
"The deployment of such pronouns as "we" and "us" are also the stuff of lyrics and odes and dirges and tragedies, and so it becomes necessary from the training we have had to raise the questions of responsibility and values, of pride and extraordinary arrogance, of an amazing moral blindness. Who is the "we" who bombs civilians or who shrugs off the looting and pillaging of Iraq's astonishing heritage with phrases like "stuff happens" or "freedom is untidy"? One ought to be able to say somewhere and at some length, I am not this "we" and what :you: do, you do not in my name.... They possess great force exactly because they are corporate and can stand in unjustifiably for action that is supposed to be careful, measured, and human. "Our view," said Mrs. Albright, "is that these sanctions are worth it," "it" being the killing and destruction of numberless civilians genocidally dispatched by a phrase."
"The deployment of such pronouns as "we" and "us" are also the stuff of lyrics and odes and dirges and tragedies, and so it becomes necessary from the training we have had to raise the questions of responsibility and values, of pride and extraordinary arrogance, of an amazing moral blindness. Who is the "we" who bombs civilians or who shrugs off the looting and pillaging of Iraq's astonishing heritage with phrases like "stuff happens" or "freedom is untidy"? One ought to be able to say somewhere and at some length, I am not this "we" and what :you: do, you do not in my name.... They possess great force exactly because they are corporate and can stand in unjustifiably for action that is supposed to be careful, measured, and human. "Our view," said Mrs. Albright, "is that these sanctions are worth it," "it" being the killing and destruction of numberless civilians genocidally dispatched by a phrase."
February 27, 2024
This book expanded on a key point from Prisons We Choose to Live Inside by Doris Lessing, which I read this year; that literature stands to give a glimpse into history, therein lies its upmost importance. Said, through four lectures discusses humanism, literature, and the humanties. The final chapter of this edition is Said’s address to writers and intellectuals. I read Chomsky’s the Responsibility of the Intellectual last year and this lecture is what I wanted that book to be. I am planning to get a copy of this book as a birthday gift for a close friend.
March 15, 2018
Edward Said's last book might just prove to be his most important - yes, even more so than Orientalism. A short but exquisite paean to the classical humanist tradition of philological inquiry, political involvement and expansive Canonical engagement. I had no idea how capable, erudite and passionate a scholar Said was in the Humanities, having only acquainted myself thus far, primarily, with his writings on Palestine.
June 9, 2025
Clarifies Said’s politics and perspective within academia. While it is easy to lump Said in with many postcolonial, postmodern intellectuals because of his theory of Orientalism, these lectures assert his belief in humanism as a modernist force which connects art to politics through dialectics of resistance/demystification, and individual/whole.
October 8, 2017
"La provvisoria dimora di un intellettuale è il «campo» di un'arte esigente, resistente e intransigente nella quale, ahimè, non si può trovare rifugio né soluzione. Solo da questo precario esilio, tuttavia, si può davvero comprendere la difficoltà di ciò che non può essere compreso e andare avanti, facendo ancora un altro tentativo." (p. 164, excipit)
January 1, 2013
Dentro dos estudos culturais, Edward Said é um dos poucos críticos que tem o meu total respeito. Ele sustenta uma coisa que, ao meu ver, é fundamental para o estudo, a apreciação e o trabalho de crítica em literatura, a sensibilidade. Imagino Said chorando com um grande volume dos sonetos de Shakespeare nas mãos, imagino ele trancado em uma sala completamente absorto por alguma obra do grande ciclo romanesco do século XIX. Isso é o que está faltando na academia hoje. Os ensaios reunidos nesse livro [e em muitas das outras obras do Said], são a prova viva desse sentimento de erudito apaixonado. Além de tratar de forma impressionista dos textos analisados, Said consegue "salvar" o que há de político e engajado na crítica literária. Isso é o que há de mais encantador em seu trabalho.
Nesse livro ele trata do que convencionou-se chamar de humanismo. O que é ser um humanista na modernidade? O que é ser um intelectual?O que é ser um escritor? Esses são questionamentos pertinentes ao longo dos textos.
O livro ainda traz um belíssimo ensaio - uma verdadeira homenagem - ao livro Mimesis de Erich Auerbach, uma das grandes influências declaradas de Said.
Uma outra coisa importante: Said tem um estilo de escrita extremamente "leve", consegue tratar de temas áridos e complexos com a suavidade e a naturalidade de quem tem uma aproximação e vivência muito grande com os problemas analisados.
Recomendo bastante.
Nesse livro ele trata do que convencionou-se chamar de humanismo. O que é ser um humanista na modernidade? O que é ser um intelectual?O que é ser um escritor? Esses são questionamentos pertinentes ao longo dos textos.
O livro ainda traz um belíssimo ensaio - uma verdadeira homenagem - ao livro Mimesis de Erich Auerbach, uma das grandes influências declaradas de Said.
Uma outra coisa importante: Said tem um estilo de escrita extremamente "leve", consegue tratar de temas áridos e complexos com a suavidade e a naturalidade de quem tem uma aproximação e vivência muito grande com os problemas analisados.
Recomendo bastante.
November 21, 2012
Katrina Renard: As I am in the midst of programming and content design for 2012, it was particularly interesting to note Said's belief that the critical study of literature is important in developing the human capacity for self-criticism. Further, his humanist ideals for the future are compelling. He claims that while humanism is traditionally grounded in European masculinity, it might readily be expanded to better serve our world - to "...a humanism that is multicultural, seeking to be liberating, inclusive, and enlightening - that is, a truly democratic humanism, which is neither ethnocentric nor self-congratulatory and which includes not only literary and linguistic ideals but also political ones...". An interesting read!
December 24, 2007
in defense of the humanist tradition, edward said criticizes the traditionalists who limit the canon to the Euro-centric, masculine literary tradition and encourages the canon to be inclusive and all-encompassing. Said also calls on intellectuals to assume more active, public roles, especially in the post-9/11 milieu, an era of not only the curtailment of rights but also freedom of thought. said's lectures vindicate the humanist tradition and defends it.
July 15, 2010
Por que li: para aprender com o agradável estilo ensaístico de Said, posto que estou com dificuldades para escrever.
A leitura foi proveitosa pelas seguintes razões:
1. Valeu pela visão excludente e moralista de cânones.
2. E também pela interessante interpretação de Dr. Fausto. Segundo Said, o narrador Zeitblom é limitado demais para compreender Leverkuhn.
A leitura foi proveitosa pelas seguintes razões:
1. Valeu pela visão excludente e moralista de cânones.
2. E também pela interessante interpretação de Dr. Fausto. Segundo Said, o narrador Zeitblom é limitado demais para compreender Leverkuhn.
May 23, 2014
Important insight into humanist tradition, Said urges the critical rule of human literature in developing human capacity for self-criticism. He acknowledges the deficiencies in humanism being based originally in European Masculinity, however strongly argue for possibility of multicultural, inclusive and enlightened humanism
July 29, 2010
Said's series of lectures on the continuing importance of the humanist tradition...thought provoking and running counter to much of what I had previously imagined humanism to be. And I confess it inspired me with an immense desire to read Mimesis by Auerbach, heretofore inconceivable...
June 27, 2007
A collection of five lectures prepared right before he passed away. Extremely interesting manifesto on how to do cultural theory.
January 6, 2008
Aimed at an academic audience, this book assumes a certain familiarity with debates within literature departments; I did not find it very interesting, though clearly expressed.
June 10, 2016
update 1: I categorically refuse to accept that supercede is an acceptable spelling (p. 12). I blame that on Prof. Bilgrami. Nevertheless, I am still loving this book.
January 12, 2019
Oh my god did I struggle to get through this one. It assumes a base of knowledge that I was nowhere close to having.
May 11, 2020
¿Cuál es el papel del intelectual hoy? Said nos ofrece una visión del humanismo para el siglo XXI.
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