Edward W. Said
Born: 01-01-1935
Edward W. Said was a prominent literary theorist and cultural critic, best known for his groundbreaking work "Orientalism." Born in Jerusalem in 1935, he later became a professor at Columbia University, where he taught English and Comparative Literature. Said's work explored themes of post-colonialism, identity, and the politics of representation. Beyond academia, he was an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and a prolific writer, influencing diverse fields with his critical insights.
Book summaries for books written by Edward W. Said
Quotes
Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.
The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other.
Orientalism, therefore, is not an airy European fantasy about the Orient, but a created body of theory and practice in which, for many generations, there has been a considerable material investment.
The Orientalist does not deal with the Orient as a historian or a sociologist, or as a thinker about social, political, and economic problems. He deals with the Orient as a stage on which to act out a special destiny.
Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.
The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.
The Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined. On this stage will appear figures whose role it is to represent the larger whole from which they emanate. The Orient then seems to be a closed system.
Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic power over the Orient than it is as a veridic discourse about the Orient.
In short, Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.
For every Orientalist, there is a special affinity between knowledge and power.
Imperialism is not simply a matter of territorial acquisition; it is a matter of imposing one’s own power and culture on the people one subjugates.
The connection between imperialism and culture is clearer when one considers the relationship between a metropolitan society and a colony.