Edward W. Said (1935–2003) ranks as one of the most preeminent public intellectuals of our time. Through his literary criticism, his advocacy for the Palestinian cause, and his groundbreaking book Orientalism, Said elegantly enriched public discourse by unsettling the status quo. This indispensable volume, the most comprehensive and wide-ranging resource on Edward Said’s life and work, spans his broad legacy both within and beyond the academy. The book brings together contributions from thirty-one luminaries—leading scholars, critics, writers, and activists—to engage Said’s provocative ideas. Their essays and interviews explore the key themes of emancipation and representation through the prisms of postcolonial theory, literature, music, philosophy, and cultural studies.

Contributors: Bill Ashcroft, Ben Conisbee Baer, Daniel Barenboim, Timothy Brennan, Noam Chomsky, Denise DeCaires-Narain, Nicholas Dirks, Marc H. Ellis, Rokus de Groot, Sabry Hafez, Abdirahman A. Hussein, Ardi Imseis, Adel Iskandar, Ghada Karmi, Katherine Callen King, Joseph Massad, W. J. T. Mitchell, Laura Nader, Ilan Pappe, Benita Parry, Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, Jahan Ramazani, Jacqueline Rose, Lecia Rosenthal, Hakem Rustom, Avi Shlaim, Ella Habiba Shohat, Robert Spencer, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Anastasia Valassopoulos, Asha Varadharajan, Michael Wood.

CONTENTS:

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Emancipation and Representation
Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom

1. Affiliating with Edward Said
Joseph Massad

Part 1. On Colony and Aesthetics

2. Edward Said Remembered on September 11, 2004: A Conversation with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Ben Conisbee Baer

3. Beginnings Again
Michael Wood

4. Side by Side: The Other Is Not Mute
Laura Nader

5. Edward Said and Anthropology
Nicholas B. Dirks

6. The Critic and the Public: Edward Said and World Literature
Timothy Brennan

7. Affiliating Edward Said Closer to Home: Reading Postcolonial
Women's Texts
Denise deCaires Narain

8. Translating Heroism: Locating Edward Said on Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love
Katherine Callen King

9. Edward Said and the Poetry of Decolonization
Jahan Ramazani

10. Edward Said in Contemporary Arabic Culture
Sabry Hafez

11. "Long, Languorous, Repetitious Line":
Edward Said's Critique of Arab Popular Culture
Anastasia Valassopoulos

12. Edward Said and Counterpoint
Rokus de Groot

Part 2. Palestine, Israel, and Zionism

13. The Arab/Jewish Counterpoint: An Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Hakem Rustom

14. Speaking Truth to Power: On Edward Said and the Palestinian Freedom Struggle
Ardi Imseis

15. Edward Said and the Palestine Question
Avi Shlaim

16. Representation and Liberation: From Orientalism to the Palestinian Crisis
Bill Ashcroft

17. Said and the Palestinian Diaspora: A Personal Reflection
Ghada Karmi

18. The Question of Zionism: Continuing the Dialogue
Jacqueline Rose

19. Edward Said's Impact on Post-Zionist Critique in Israel
Ilan Pappe

20. The "Postcolonial" in Translation: Reading Said in Hebrew
Ella Shohat

21. Exile With/Out God: A Jewish Commentary in Memory of Edward Said
Marc H. Ellis

Part 3. The Intellectual at a Crossroads

22. The Incalculable Loss: Conversations with Noam Chomsky
Adel Iskandar

23. "Contented Homeland Peace": The Motif of Exile in Edward Said
Robert Spencer

24. A New "Copernican" Revolution: Said's Critique of Metaphysics and Theology
Abdirahman A. Hussein

25. Edward Said and the Possibilities of Humanism
R. Radhakrishnan

26. The Language of the Unrequited: Memory, Aspiration, and Antagonism in the Utopian Imagination of Edward Said
Asha Varadharajan

27. Between Humanism and Late Style
Lecia Rosenthal

28. Secular Divination: Edward Said's Humanism
W.J.T. Mitchell

29. Countercurrents and Tensions in Said's Critical Practice
Benita Parry

List of Contributors
Index

AUTHOR:

Adel Iskandar is Visiting Scholar at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Georgetown University. He is the author of Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism. Hakem Rustom is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics.