Andrew N. Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154152
- eISBN:
- 9781400842179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154152.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the dimensions of Edward Said's critical writing. In spite of numerous attempts to define and identify an overarching methodology that can be traced throughout Said's some ...
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This chapter examines the dimensions of Edward Said's critical writing. In spite of numerous attempts to define and identify an overarching methodology that can be traced throughout Said's some twenty-five books, few have successfully, or at the very least convincingly, identified a method that endures throughout his entire oeuvre. That such an intellectual, who is credited with the invention of fields like postcolonial studies and who has made a decidedly transforming contribution to the reinvention of humanism in general, has proven so elusive in this respect has to do with the changing exigencies he faced as an intellectual. At the same time, however, Said has exhibited a lasting affinity with a range of key figures, intellectuals, and critics—most notably Erich Auerbach (1892–1957), a scholar of classical and philological training.Less
This chapter examines the dimensions of Edward Said's critical writing. In spite of numerous attempts to define and identify an overarching methodology that can be traced throughout Said's some twenty-five books, few have successfully, or at the very least convincingly, identified a method that endures throughout his entire oeuvre. That such an intellectual, who is credited with the invention of fields like postcolonial studies and who has made a decidedly transforming contribution to the reinvention of humanism in general, has proven so elusive in this respect has to do with the changing exigencies he faced as an intellectual. At the same time, however, Said has exhibited a lasting affinity with a range of key figures, intellectuals, and critics—most notably Erich Auerbach (1892–1957), a scholar of classical and philological training.
Rahul Rao
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199560370
- eISBN:
- 9780191721694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560370.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, International Relations and Politics
The chapter describes the protest sensibilities of four writers—James Joyce, Rabindranath Tagore, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon—who were fierce critics of nationalism even as they wished fervently ...
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The chapter describes the protest sensibilities of four writers—James Joyce, Rabindranath Tagore, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon—who were fierce critics of nationalism even as they wished fervently for the success of national liberation movements. This ambiguous attitude towards nationalism was underpinned by complex spatial imaginaries of threat, in which the freedom of the political communities with which they identified was perceived to be threatened both from outside and within. As anti‐imperialists, they made the case for subaltern nationalism; but an anxiety about the oppressions inherent in nationalist mobilization also led them to a critique of nationalism. Tagore, Said, and Fanon attempted to square this circle by viewing nationalism as a transitory stage through which subaltern resistance must pass to recuperate the identity and sense of self that imperialism had trampled underfoot, but which must then subsume itself in postcolonial universality once this goal had been attained.Less
The chapter describes the protest sensibilities of four writers—James Joyce, Rabindranath Tagore, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon—who were fierce critics of nationalism even as they wished fervently for the success of national liberation movements. This ambiguous attitude towards nationalism was underpinned by complex spatial imaginaries of threat, in which the freedom of the political communities with which they identified was perceived to be threatened both from outside and within. As anti‐imperialists, they made the case for subaltern nationalism; but an anxiety about the oppressions inherent in nationalist mobilization also led them to a critique of nationalism. Tagore, Said, and Fanon attempted to square this circle by viewing nationalism as a transitory stage through which subaltern resistance must pass to recuperate the identity and sense of self that imperialism had trampled underfoot, but which must then subsume itself in postcolonial universality once this goal had been attained.
Anna Bernard
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846319433
- eISBN:
- 9781781381045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846319433.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter reads Edward Said’s memoir Out of Place (1999) as an exploration of the ways in which the idea of national belonging shapes and motivates the individual subject. Over the course of the ...
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This chapter reads Edward Said’s memoir Out of Place (1999) as an exploration of the ways in which the idea of national belonging shapes and motivates the individual subject. Over the course of the memoir, the young Edward’s suppressed Palestinian ‘origins’ are strenuously transformed into ‘beginnings’, through which Said strives to offer a more difficult, chosen, and non-automatic expression of a Palestinian national identity. This Bildungsromanic trajectory relies on the national-allegorical resonance of the two concepts that are key to so much of Said’s theoretical and political work: exile and liberation. The memoir both problematically and provocatively sets up a complex set of correspondences between Said’s claim to Palestinian nationality and his refusal of corporate belonging, his representation of exile as individually empowering and collectively disabling, and his figuring of liberation as the exercise of intellectual freedom and the act of collective self-determination.Less
This chapter reads Edward Said’s memoir Out of Place (1999) as an exploration of the ways in which the idea of national belonging shapes and motivates the individual subject. Over the course of the memoir, the young Edward’s suppressed Palestinian ‘origins’ are strenuously transformed into ‘beginnings’, through which Said strives to offer a more difficult, chosen, and non-automatic expression of a Palestinian national identity. This Bildungsromanic trajectory relies on the national-allegorical resonance of the two concepts that are key to so much of Said’s theoretical and political work: exile and liberation. The memoir both problematically and provocatively sets up a complex set of correspondences between Said’s claim to Palestinian nationality and his refusal of corporate belonging, his representation of exile as individually empowering and collectively disabling, and his figuring of liberation as the exercise of intellectual freedom and the act of collective self-determination.
S.N. Balagangadhara
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198082965
- eISBN:
- 9780199081936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198082965.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter probes the phenomenon of post-Orientalism in order to answer the question: what next after Edward Said’s Orientalism? Said’s work has been of crucial importance to Indian intellectuals ...
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This chapter probes the phenomenon of post-Orientalism in order to answer the question: what next after Edward Said’s Orientalism? Said’s work has been of crucial importance to Indian intellectuals in allowing them to raise the following issue: If we know India through the organization effected by the Western intellectual tradition, how would it look if organized otherwise? To begin answering this question, one needs to examine Said’s insight that Orientalist discourse is the result of a particular form of constrained thinking, which transforms non-Western cultures into pale and erring variants of the Western culture. The chapter argues that the social sciences and Orientalism constrain each other. Therefore, the social sciences have been a monologue of the Western culture and cannot go beyond Orientalism in their current form.Less
This chapter probes the phenomenon of post-Orientalism in order to answer the question: what next after Edward Said’s Orientalism? Said’s work has been of crucial importance to Indian intellectuals in allowing them to raise the following issue: If we know India through the organization effected by the Western intellectual tradition, how would it look if organized otherwise? To begin answering this question, one needs to examine Said’s insight that Orientalist discourse is the result of a particular form of constrained thinking, which transforms non-Western cultures into pale and erring variants of the Western culture. The chapter argues that the social sciences and Orientalism constrain each other. Therefore, the social sciences have been a monologue of the Western culture and cannot go beyond Orientalism in their current form.
Steven J. Friesen
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131536
- eISBN:
- 9780199834198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131533.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Lays out a theoretical orientation that allows Friesen to compare the evidence for the imperial cult institutions of mainstream society with a visionary religious text like Revelation, which was ...
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Lays out a theoretical orientation that allows Friesen to compare the evidence for the imperial cult institutions of mainstream society with a visionary religious text like Revelation, which was produced by a marginal group in society. The chapter begins with a review of critiques of modernity found in the work of three scholars of religion – Mircea Eliade, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Charles Long. The chapter then draws on the comparative model of Lawrence E. Sullivan, which describes cosmogony, cosmology, human maturation, and eschatology as the four cornerstones of religious systems. This phenomenological method is amended by the incorporation of Edward Said's concept of contrapuntal interpretation of history and society.Less
Lays out a theoretical orientation that allows Friesen to compare the evidence for the imperial cult institutions of mainstream society with a visionary religious text like Revelation, which was produced by a marginal group in society. The chapter begins with a review of critiques of modernity found in the work of three scholars of religion – Mircea Eliade, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Charles Long. The chapter then draws on the comparative model of Lawrence E. Sullivan, which describes cosmogony, cosmology, human maturation, and eschatology as the four cornerstones of religious systems. This phenomenological method is amended by the incorporation of Edward Said's concept of contrapuntal interpretation of history and society.
D. R. M. Irving
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195378269
- eISBN:
- 9780199864614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195378269.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter proposes counterpoint as a metaphor for the historical critique of colonial musical cultures in the early modern world. It explains how Edward W. Said's technique of “contrapuntal ...
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This chapter proposes counterpoint as a metaphor for the historical critique of colonial musical cultures in the early modern world. It explains how Edward W. Said's technique of “contrapuntal analysis” can be borrowed from literary studies and used in the interpretation of colonial historiography. As Manila was the final link in the network of worldwide trade routes that were established in the late sixteenth century, this chapter suggests that an examination of musical exchanges at this crucial geocultural crossroads of mercantile, political, and religious enterprises can reveal much about the early modern origins and development of music globalization. Finally, it provides an outline of the book and an overview of the primary source materials that are relevant to this study.Less
This chapter proposes counterpoint as a metaphor for the historical critique of colonial musical cultures in the early modern world. It explains how Edward W. Said's technique of “contrapuntal analysis” can be borrowed from literary studies and used in the interpretation of colonial historiography. As Manila was the final link in the network of worldwide trade routes that were established in the late sixteenth century, this chapter suggests that an examination of musical exchanges at this crucial geocultural crossroads of mercantile, political, and religious enterprises can reveal much about the early modern origins and development of music globalization. Finally, it provides an outline of the book and an overview of the primary source materials that are relevant to this study.
Christopher GoGwilt
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751624
- eISBN:
- 9780199866199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751624.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Chapter 2 offers a comparative study of the Malay trilogy of novels (Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue) with which Conrad began his career and the Buru tetralogy of novels ...
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Chapter 2 offers a comparative study of the Malay trilogy of novels (Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue) with which Conrad began his career and the Buru tetralogy of novels (This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass) that Pramoedya composed in Buru Island prison camp. For each novel sequence, opera presents a revealing problem of narrative consciousness and cultural capital. This problem organizes the chapter's comparative reading of the two novel sequences, drawing from and critiquing, in turn, Edward Said's model of “contrapuntal reading.”Less
Chapter 2 offers a comparative study of the Malay trilogy of novels (Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue) with which Conrad began his career and the Buru tetralogy of novels (This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass) that Pramoedya composed in Buru Island prison camp. For each novel sequence, opera presents a revealing problem of narrative consciousness and cultural capital. This problem organizes the chapter's comparative reading of the two novel sequences, drawing from and critiquing, in turn, Edward Said's model of “contrapuntal reading.”
Emma Dillon
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199732951
- eISBN:
- 9780199932061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732951.003.0108
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, ...
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This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, it emphasizes why the pursuit of a history of sonic experience may be desirable in the contemporary climate of these fields.Less
This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, it emphasizes why the pursuit of a history of sonic experience may be desirable in the contemporary climate of these fields.
Bryan Cheyette
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300093186
- eISBN:
- 9780300199376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300093186.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes. It argues that one way of understanding different versions of diaspora is in relation to metaphorical thinking and ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes. It argues that one way of understanding different versions of diaspora is in relation to metaphorical thinking and disciplinary thinking, and considers the work of Hannah Arendt, Edward Said, and V. S. Naipul.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes. It argues that one way of understanding different versions of diaspora is in relation to metaphorical thinking and disciplinary thinking, and considers the work of Hannah Arendt, Edward Said, and V. S. Naipul.
Jakob Lothe
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122555
- eISBN:
- 9780191671463
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122555.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This book applies recent developments in critical theory and practice to the whole canon of Conrad's works. Using a broadly structuralist approach, the book analyses Conrad's sophisticated narrative ...
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This book applies recent developments in critical theory and practice to the whole canon of Conrad's works. Using a broadly structuralist approach, the book analyses Conrad's sophisticated narrative method, focusing on his use of devices, functions, variations, and thematic effects or implications. More widely, the book explores the relationship between Conrad's narrative method and the complex thematics engendered and shaped by this method. Discussing the notions of major post-structuralist critics such as Edward W. Said and J. Hillis Miller, the book develops and applies a critical methodology which is flexible enough to respond to the varying interpretative problems presented by Conrad's fiction.Less
This book applies recent developments in critical theory and practice to the whole canon of Conrad's works. Using a broadly structuralist approach, the book analyses Conrad's sophisticated narrative method, focusing on his use of devices, functions, variations, and thematic effects or implications. More widely, the book explores the relationship between Conrad's narrative method and the complex thematics engendered and shaped by this method. Discussing the notions of major post-structuralist critics such as Edward W. Said and J. Hillis Miller, the book develops and applies a critical methodology which is flexible enough to respond to the varying interpretative problems presented by Conrad's fiction.
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central ...
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This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.Less
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.
Carl Olson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199959839
- eISBN:
- 9780199315970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959839.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Michel Foucault's method of genealogy, concept of power, and theory of discourse form the context for a critical consideration of Edward W. Said's notion of Orientalism.
Michel Foucault's method of genealogy, concept of power, and theory of discourse form the context for a critical consideration of Edward W. Said's notion of Orientalism.
Tahia Abdel Nasser
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474420228
- eISBN:
- 9781474438537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420228.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter examines Arab Anglophone memoirs by focusing on Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir (1999) and Najla Said’s Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family (2013). ...
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This chapter examines Arab Anglophone memoirs by focusing on Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir (1999) and Najla Said’s Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family (2013). Out of Place traces Edward Said’s cultural and literary journey from Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt to his education in the US. Edward Said’s self-representation rests on the dichotomy of his solitude during his formation within a history of dispossession and his career. The chapter rethinks Out of Place through the burgeoning of the Palestinian national movement and Said’s lifework. The chapter also compares Edward
Said’s youth in the Arab world and Najla Said’s Arab-American background, Said’s journey to the US and his daughter’s return to her roots, to arrive at a rethinking of the genre that migrates across languages and cultures.Less
This chapter examines Arab Anglophone memoirs by focusing on Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir (1999) and Najla Said’s Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family (2013). Out of Place traces Edward Said’s cultural and literary journey from Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt to his education in the US. Edward Said’s self-representation rests on the dichotomy of his solitude during his formation within a history of dispossession and his career. The chapter rethinks Out of Place through the burgeoning of the Palestinian national movement and Said’s lifework. The chapter also compares Edward
Said’s youth in the Arab world and Najla Said’s Arab-American background, Said’s journey to the US and his daughter’s return to her roots, to arrive at a rethinking of the genre that migrates across languages and cultures.
Javed Majeed
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117865
- eISBN:
- 9780191671098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117865.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book has argued that the emergence of utilitarianism and the conservative ideology which it attacked in the early 19th century was closely involved with the British imperial experience in India. ...
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This book has argued that the emergence of utilitarianism and the conservative ideology which it attacked in the early 19th century was closely involved with the British imperial experience in India. It has thrown some light on the problem of what constituted consistency between one's political views in Britain and one's political views in British India. It is this, and the whole character of the body of ideas of which it was a part, which distinguishes the liberal imperialism of James Mill from that of such figures as Sir William Jones. Furthermore, an important part of Mill's critique of the revitalized conservatism of his time was an attack on the relationship between notions of the imagination and the creation of an Orient in the work of Jones and his colleagues. This dimension of Mill's The History of British India has been somewhat neglected. In its analysis of texts which can be seen to form part of an orientalism, this book has tended to disagree with some aspects of Edward Said's thesis.Less
This book has argued that the emergence of utilitarianism and the conservative ideology which it attacked in the early 19th century was closely involved with the British imperial experience in India. It has thrown some light on the problem of what constituted consistency between one's political views in Britain and one's political views in British India. It is this, and the whole character of the body of ideas of which it was a part, which distinguishes the liberal imperialism of James Mill from that of such figures as Sir William Jones. Furthermore, an important part of Mill's critique of the revitalized conservatism of his time was an attack on the relationship between notions of the imagination and the creation of an Orient in the work of Jones and his colleagues. This dimension of Mill's The History of British India has been somewhat neglected. In its analysis of texts which can be seen to form part of an orientalism, this book has tended to disagree with some aspects of Edward Said's thesis.
Adam Zachary Newton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263516
- eISBN:
- 9780823266470
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263516.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Chapter 1 begins the argument in earnest by considering two orders of proximity: the status of the literary artwork in relation to sacred text or Holy Scripture, and the task of criticism as espoused ...
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Chapter 1 begins the argument in earnest by considering two orders of proximity: the status of the literary artwork in relation to sacred text or Holy Scripture, and the task of criticism as espoused by two formidable late twentieth-century humanists, Emmanuel Levinas and Edward Said. The chapter’s title initiates a discussion of art’s relation to magic; Georges Poulet’s analysis of “the book” in his essay “The Phenomenology of Reading” and an early essay on aesthetics by Levinas, “Art and its Shadow” set the stage for a juxtaposition of Levinas and Said, in which Said’s essays on religious and secular criticism in “The World, the Text, and the Critic,” and later writings like “Timeliness and Lateness” and Humanism and Democratic Criticism, are interread with several of Levinas’s Talmudic readings against the background of classical Jewish sources.Less
Chapter 1 begins the argument in earnest by considering two orders of proximity: the status of the literary artwork in relation to sacred text or Holy Scripture, and the task of criticism as espoused by two formidable late twentieth-century humanists, Emmanuel Levinas and Edward Said. The chapter’s title initiates a discussion of art’s relation to magic; Georges Poulet’s analysis of “the book” in his essay “The Phenomenology of Reading” and an early essay on aesthetics by Levinas, “Art and its Shadow” set the stage for a juxtaposition of Levinas and Said, in which Said’s essays on religious and secular criticism in “The World, the Text, and the Critic,” and later writings like “Timeliness and Lateness” and Humanism and Democratic Criticism, are interread with several of Levinas’s Talmudic readings against the background of classical Jewish sources.
Tim Fulford
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554157
- eISBN:
- 9780191720437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554157.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic ...
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This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic imagery. The chapter shows that Coleridge made admiration of the Nights a badge of Romantic poets, a sign of the “imagination” that he made their defining characteristic—in other words a key part of the Romantic Ideology he, and others, set out in order to advance their claims as revolutionary poets. The chapter shows that Coleridge engaged with the Nights not just (or even principally) at the level of content, but more profoundly at the level of form. Specifically, he developed from the Nights the form of the verse-tale that is discernible in “The Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan,” an anti-realist form that he used to free poetry from the need to illustrate the world as it is and instead compose that world differently. In the 1790s, the chapter argues, this Nights-derived poetic allowed him to write radical re-imaginings of contemporary social mores.Less
This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic imagery. The chapter shows that Coleridge made admiration of the Nights a badge of Romantic poets, a sign of the “imagination” that he made their defining characteristic—in other words a key part of the Romantic Ideology he, and others, set out in order to advance their claims as revolutionary poets. The chapter shows that Coleridge engaged with the Nights not just (or even principally) at the level of content, but more profoundly at the level of form. Specifically, he developed from the Nights the form of the verse-tale that is discernible in “The Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan,” an anti-realist form that he used to free poetry from the need to illustrate the world as it is and instead compose that world differently. In the 1790s, the chapter argues, this Nights-derived poetic allowed him to write radical re-imaginings of contemporary social mores.
Carl Olson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199959839
- eISBN:
- 9780199315970
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959839.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book offers a compelling and provocative argument against the application of postmodern thought to religious studies, showing how such radically skeptical thinking undermines, subverts, and ...
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This book offers a compelling and provocative argument against the application of postmodern thought to religious studies, showing how such radically skeptical thinking undermines, subverts, and distorts the study of religion. It shows that religious studies is an ongoing experiment with various types of methodological approaches to the study of religion, which is itself a human construct with limited cross-cultural application. Without a commonly agreed-upon method for the study of its subject, religious studies is characterized by the use of multiple methods, which tend to be adopted based on the latest trends in the field. Most recently, these trends have been dominated by postmodern thought. Because the discipline of religious studies is a product of the European Enlightenment with its values and representational mode of thinking, it is challenged and even threatened by postmodern thought, which calls into question many of its values, basic presuppositions, and convictions. The author examines various postmodern positions related to the study of religion, including those of Georges Bataille, Jacques Derrida, Marcel Mauss, Michel Foucault and Edward W. Said. He contrasts the thought of traditional history of religions scholars Mircea Eliade and Wendy Doniger with selected postmodern thinkers on the topics of hermeneutics, comparison, and difference. The book concludes by exploring the postmodern challenges to such accepted concepts of religion and considers the long-term implications of a scholar's adoption of postmodern methods. Regardless of whether they are transformed by postmodern thought, it suggests all methods and concepts should be subject to pragmatic review.Less
This book offers a compelling and provocative argument against the application of postmodern thought to religious studies, showing how such radically skeptical thinking undermines, subverts, and distorts the study of religion. It shows that religious studies is an ongoing experiment with various types of methodological approaches to the study of religion, which is itself a human construct with limited cross-cultural application. Without a commonly agreed-upon method for the study of its subject, religious studies is characterized by the use of multiple methods, which tend to be adopted based on the latest trends in the field. Most recently, these trends have been dominated by postmodern thought. Because the discipline of religious studies is a product of the European Enlightenment with its values and representational mode of thinking, it is challenged and even threatened by postmodern thought, which calls into question many of its values, basic presuppositions, and convictions. The author examines various postmodern positions related to the study of religion, including those of Georges Bataille, Jacques Derrida, Marcel Mauss, Michel Foucault and Edward W. Said. He contrasts the thought of traditional history of religions scholars Mircea Eliade and Wendy Doniger with selected postmodern thinkers on the topics of hermeneutics, comparison, and difference. The book concludes by exploring the postmodern challenges to such accepted concepts of religion and considers the long-term implications of a scholar's adoption of postmodern methods. Regardless of whether they are transformed by postmodern thought, it suggests all methods and concepts should be subject to pragmatic review.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that ...
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This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that this criticism represents an interesting departure from previous formulations of English literature's social function. Two key essays from U.S.-based academics have been particularly influential. The first is Edward Said's ‘Traveling Theory’ and the second is Adrienne Rich's ‘Notes toward a Politics of Location’. The chapter also introduces an analysis associated with Roland Barthes's famous essay ‘The Death of the Author’. Much of the credit for adding scare quotes to the name ‘Shakespeare’ can be given to Barthes's essay, with William Shakespeare, the most authorised of all authors, placed under fresh critical scrutiny in the light of Barthe's attempted murder.Less
This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that this criticism represents an interesting departure from previous formulations of English literature's social function. Two key essays from U.S.-based academics have been particularly influential. The first is Edward Said's ‘Traveling Theory’ and the second is Adrienne Rich's ‘Notes toward a Politics of Location’. The chapter also introduces an analysis associated with Roland Barthes's famous essay ‘The Death of the Author’. Much of the credit for adding scare quotes to the name ‘Shakespeare’ can be given to Barthes's essay, with William Shakespeare, the most authorised of all authors, placed under fresh critical scrutiny in the light of Barthe's attempted murder.
Anna Bernard
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846319433
- eISBN:
- 9781781381045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846319433.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter considers the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti’s account of his visit to the West Bank in 1996 after a thirty-year absence. It argues that Barghouti counters Edward Said’s emphasis on ...
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This chapter considers the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti’s account of his visit to the West Bank in 1996 after a thirty-year absence. It argues that Barghouti counters Edward Said’s emphasis on the exilic character of Palestinian national identity, which persists even in his foreword to Barghouti’s text. Instead, Barghouti’s narrative foregrounds the contrast between his own experience of exile and the experiences of Palestinians who continue to live in the West Bank. In order to represent this localized dimension of contemporary Palestinian experience, Barghouti develops an existential materialist aesthetic which privileges the ‘truthfulness’ of sensory experience over the idea that all Palestinians share a certain set of experiences and sense of identity. I read this effort as an attempt to recognize the contemporary fragmentation of the Palestinian collective, and thus to construct a new ground on which a coalitional nationalist politics might be built.Less
This chapter considers the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti’s account of his visit to the West Bank in 1996 after a thirty-year absence. It argues that Barghouti counters Edward Said’s emphasis on the exilic character of Palestinian national identity, which persists even in his foreword to Barghouti’s text. Instead, Barghouti’s narrative foregrounds the contrast between his own experience of exile and the experiences of Palestinians who continue to live in the West Bank. In order to represent this localized dimension of contemporary Palestinian experience, Barghouti develops an existential materialist aesthetic which privileges the ‘truthfulness’ of sensory experience over the idea that all Palestinians share a certain set of experiences and sense of identity. I read this effort as an attempt to recognize the contemporary fragmentation of the Palestinian collective, and thus to construct a new ground on which a coalitional nationalist politics might be built.
Nicholas Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786941763
- eISBN:
- 9781789629965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941763.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
One purpose of this chapter is to place the book’s core Algerian material in a wider intellectual context, inviting readers to pursue comparisons with their own experiences of teaching/criticism, or ...
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One purpose of this chapter is to place the book’s core Algerian material in a wider intellectual context, inviting readers to pursue comparisons with their own experiences of teaching/criticism, or with other histories. It extends the Introduction’s discussion of Edward Said, treating his work as paradigmatic in its equivocal relationship to literary education and humanities education more widely, a mixture of enduring commitment and deep scepticism. Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India is treated briefly as another example. The chapter explores critically Said’s promotion of the work of the ‘intellectual’ as a possible path to political legitimacy for the literature professor, then examines Orientalism’s hesitations over literary aesthetics and his uncertainties over how to place literature politically and historically. [125]Less
One purpose of this chapter is to place the book’s core Algerian material in a wider intellectual context, inviting readers to pursue comparisons with their own experiences of teaching/criticism, or with other histories. It extends the Introduction’s discussion of Edward Said, treating his work as paradigmatic in its equivocal relationship to literary education and humanities education more widely, a mixture of enduring commitment and deep scepticism. Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India is treated briefly as another example. The chapter explores critically Said’s promotion of the work of the ‘intellectual’ as a possible path to political legitimacy for the literature professor, then examines Orientalism’s hesitations over literary aesthetics and his uncertainties over how to place literature politically and historically. [125]
