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Edward Said

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Edward William Said (November 1 1935 - September 25 2003) was a well-known literary theorist and critic. He was also an outspoken Palestinian activist.

Said was born in Jerusalem as a Palestinian of Christian faith, but spent his childhood in Cairo, Egypt except for several long stays in Palestine. Said received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University for many years. He has also taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Yale universities.

As an academic, Said is best known for his theory of Orientalism. In his eponymous book on the topic, Orientalism (1978), Said argued that a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Asia and the Middle East in Western culture has served as an implicit justification for Europe's and America's colonial and imperial ambitions.

As a Palestinian activist, Said defended the rights of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. For many years, Said was a member of the Palestinian National Council, but he broke with Yasser Arafat because he believed that the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 sold short the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel. He also opposed the Oslo formula of creating a Palestinian entity out of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, arguing instead for the creation of one state, in which Arabs and Jews would have equal rights. Said's books on the Israeli occupation of Palestine include The Question of Palestine (1979) and The Politics of Dispossession (1994).

For many years, Said, a skilled pianist, wrote music criticism for The Nation. In 1999, he jointly founded the West-East Divan Orchestra with the Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, a close friend. It is an initiative to bring together every summer a group of talented young classical musicians from Israel and Arab countries. For their work, Said and Barenboim were among the recipients of the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for "improving understanding between nations."

Edward Said died at the age of 67 in New York after a long battle with leukemia.

Books by Edward Said

  • After the Last Sky (1986)
  • Beginnings (1975)
  • Blaming the Victims (1988)
  • Covering Islam (1981)
  • Criticism in Society
  • Culture and Imperialism
  • Edward Said: A Critical Reader
  • Jewish Religion, Jewish History (Introduction)
  • Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966)
  • Literature and Society (1980)
  • Musical Elaborations (1991)
  • Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature
  • Orientalism (1978)
  • Orientalisme (1980)
  • Out of Place (1999) (a memoir)
  • Parallels and Paradoxes (with Daniel Barenboim)
  • The Pen and the Sword (1994)
  • The Politics of Dispossession (1994)
  • The Question of Palestine (1979)
  • Reflections on Exile (2000)
  • Representations of the Intellectual (1994)
  • The World, the Text and the Critic (1983)

Links to the Commentary article by Justus Reid Weiner and a second article which alleges deliberate falsehoods by Edward Said:

Links to articles which refute such allegations:

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