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November 1, 1935

 

Edward W. Said, (November 1, 1935 to September 25, 2003) was a famous Palestinian who taught English literature at Columbia, and came to represent a coherent and knowledgeable critique of global interconnectedness.

Orientalism (1978) is Said's best known work and in it he tries to analyze how the views of the West toward the East are subject to the biases of those in power. This falls under the rubric of post-colonial theory. 

He uses the example of someone writing about a "fierce lion." His point is the feedback between readers and writers, wherein, once broached, a topic, can produce other books by others on a certain topic. Said's example is other people who would write on the subject of the origin of fierceness in lions. The situation is more complicated though, because as he points out---the expectations of readers also influence a writer's choice of topic.

In an afterward to Orientalism written in 1994 Said tried to clear up what he maintained were "ways in which a work about representations of "The Orient" lends itself to increasing misrepresentation and misinterpretation.

Misinterpretations are meat to a theorist. 


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