The worlds of Edward Said

Abstract

Edward Said achieved international renown with his book Orientalism, destined to become a bible of postcolonial studies, and as an advocate of Palestinian rights. The scholar was dubbed a nationalist and supporter of Islam. His essays, however, reveal a cosmopolitan Said who abhors the ‘politics of identity,’ Islamism, and religious parties. He expressed his admiration for Jewish philologists and philosophers, felt compassion for the suffering of the Jewish people and championed a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian problem. He borrowed Goethe’s concept of Weltliteratur. In Said’s interpretation, it transcends the boundaries of national literatures without obliterating their individual character. Assassination of either of the culture’s ‘two souls,’ the national and the cosmopolitan, may lead to cultural devitalisation and stagnation. Humanism constituted a dominant concept in Said’s works. Although ridiculed by postmodernist literary criticism, humanism is hailed by Said as essential for understanding literature. The dilemma at the core of the scholar’s work remains just as relevant to this day: how to combine cosmopolitism with the love for one’s own nation and how to fight for the rights of your own people without spewing hatred at others.