Edward Said

Edward Wadie Said (إدوارد سعيد) (born Jerusalem, November 1, 1935 – died New York, September 24, 2003) was a well-known Palestinian-born American literary theorist, critic and outspoken Palestinian activist. According to Columbia News (Columbia University), he was "one of the most influential scholars in the world."

Orientalism

Said is best known for describing and critiquing "Orientalism," that which he perceived as a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the East. In Orientalism (1978), Said decried the "subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture" http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/17/jan99/said.htm. He argued that a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Asia and the Middle East in Western culture had served as an implicit justification for Europe and America's colonial and imperial ambitions. Just as fiercely, he denounced the practice of Arab elites who internationalized the American and British orientalists' ideas of Arabic culture.

Related Topics:
Orientalism - Western - East - Orientalism - Asia - Western culture - Europe - Internationalized

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The British historian Bernard Lewis was among those scholars whose work Said had questioned in Orientalism and subsequent works. The two authors came to frequently exchange polemic, starting in the pages of the New York Review of Books following the publication of Orientalism. Lewis' article "The question of orientalism" was followed in the next issue by "Orientalism: an exchange."

Related Topics:
Bernard Lewis - New York Review of Books

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Political columnist Christopher Hitchens, a friend of Said who had jointly edited and contributed to (Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question), became increasingly critical of Said, his political views, and his scholarship during the leadup to the United States-led Iraq War. In particular, Hitchens was among the supporters of pro-war Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress; Said was against the war, and fiercely critical of Ahmad Chalabi and other exiles. In a public break, Hitchens complained that Said denied any possibility "that direct Western engagement in the region is legitimate" and that Said's analysis cast "every instance of European curiosity about the East part of a grand design to exploit and remake what Westerners saw as a passive, rich, but ultimately contemptible 'Oriental' sphere". http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/09/hitchens.htm

Related Topics:
Christopher Hitchens - Iraq War - Ahmad Chalabi - Iraqi National Congress

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In his very last article (featured in Al-Ahram and Counterpunch), Edward Said issued a stinging rebuke to Hitchens, chastising "expatriate British journalists in America..." whose thoughts amounted to "just racism at the bottom...no matter how dressed up it is" http://www.counterpunch.org/waraich09062005.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/said08202003.html.

Related Topics:
Al-Ahram - Counterpunch

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