Humanism and Democratic Criticism

Edward W. Said

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April, 2004
Cloth, 192 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12264-1
$24.95 / £17.00

"Said writes an impassioned apologia for a cosmopolitan, playful and rigorously inquisitive brand of humanist practice." — Laura Ciolkowski, New York Times Book Review

"Illuminating. . . . A poignant reminder that reasonableness and partisanship are not always the enemies that some leftists seem to think they are." — Terry Eagleton, The Nation

"The late Said here provides a powerful defense of humanistic disciplines and democratic ideals in global civilization. . . . Highly recommended." — Library Journal

"Said was the model of an engaged critic. His writings are marked out by a palpable vitality, an infectious curiosity in everything human and a set of particular concerns with exile, east and west, intellectual independence and truth telling. . . . These lectures, given in New York in 2000, are vintage Said. They begin with an argument for an expansive, unaligned and above all releveant version of literary criticism, aimed at tackling prejudice, exposing oppression and interrogating simplified ideas of identity." — Ben Rogers, Financial Times

"As the widely acknowledged father of post-colonial studies, Said has inspired a wave of interest in the study of cultural difference." — Laura Ciolkowski, International Herald Tribune

"[This] noble volume shows Said taking stock of the ideals and principles that sustained him as professor, activist, and critic. . . . [His] reasoned advocacy is a reminder why literature and criticism are equipment for living." — Matthew Price, Bookforum

"If one can only read one of Said's twenty books, then I would recommend this one. In it, Said pulls together threads and metaphors from his different works—literary, political, academic, activist, musical—to weave a humanist landscape in a style that is between that of an academic speaking to peers and that of an activist addressing an audience. It combines passion with rigour—the hallmark of Edward Said." — Al-Ahram Weekly

"A distillation of what Said called his late style, informal, freely ruminative, personal, and tirelessly reexamining his thinking." — W. J. T. Mitchell, Critical Inquiry

"In his final book, Said leaves with head held high, penning his last testament as a fire-and-brimstone humanist." — Len Edgerly, Rain Taxi

"Said's book walks a tightrope, in other words, between the latest rages in academic criticism and the conservative reactions to them... Death will not silence his voice, and humanism of the sort he espoused will never die." — W. J. T. Mitchell, Journal of Palestine Studies

Related Subjects

• Literary Criticism and Theory

Series

• Columbia Themes in Philosophy

About the Author

Born in Jerusalem in 1935, Edward W. Said was one of the world's most celebrated, outspoken, and influential public intellectuals until his death on September 24, 2003. He is the author of more than twenty books that have been translated into thirty-six languages, including Beginnings (1975); The Question of Palestine (1979); the internationally acclaimed Orientalism (1979); Covering Islam (1980); The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983); After the Last Sky (1986); Musical Elaborations (1991); Culture and Imperialism (1993); Out of Place: A Memoir (1999); Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2001); Power, Politics, and Culture (2001); and Freud and the Non-European (2003). He began teaching at Columbia University in 1963 and became University Professor of English and Comparative Literature there in 1992. He was a past president of the Modern Language Association and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Royal Society of Literature, and the American Philosophical Society. Said was the recipient of numerous prizes and distinctions—including twenty honorary doctorates—and he was first U.S. citizen to receive the prestigious Sultan Owais Prize.

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