This paper discusses the most famous concepts of one of the more controversial thinkers of recent years, Edward Said. An eloquent critic of "orientalism," the study of Arab cultures, especially by Western writers, as well as a prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause, Said continues to provoke strong and emotional reactions among his readers. In his later years, Said also antagonized the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization with his arguments against the establishment of a separate Palestinian state. This paper examines, discusses, and responds to his plea for finding literal and figurative common ground between Israel and Palestine.
Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem to Palestinian Christian parents who were also American citizens. He died in New York in 2003, a controversial international figure whose interests ranged broadly across cultural and political lines. Keith Windshuttle (1999, January) writes, "The influence of this American-Palestinian professor of literature is so great that a remarkable number of commentaries about European art, literature, cinema, music, and history now ritually genuflect to his ideas and to the wider 'postcolonial' critique they helped engender" (p. 1).
Said's second book, Orientalism, which was first published in 1978, established his forceful voice and what remains one of his most provocative arguments. The book expands on and develops the thoughts of Michel Foucault and Anwar Abdul Malek. Said focuses on how English, French, and American scholars and writers have looked at Arab societies in North Africa and the Middle East, primarily starting in the late 18th century, a view that, he argues, encouraged colonialism, helped establish the sense of social superiority that gave colonial rule its justification, and produced a false picture of Arab societies that continues to foment international conflict today, in large part by suggesting a homogeneity to Islamic cultures ...