Orientalism

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Oct 12, 1979 - Social Science - 432 pages

A groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East that is—three decades after its first publication—one of the most important books written about our divided world. 

"Intellectual history on a high order ... and very exciting." —The New York Times

In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.

From inside the book

Contents

Knowing the Oriental
31
Projects
73
Crisis
92
Redrawn Frontiers Redefined Issues Secularized
113
Rational
123
Pilgrims and Pilgrimages British and French
166
Latent and Manifest Orientalism
201
Orientalisms Worldliness
226
Modern AngloFrench Orientalism in Fullest Flower
255
The Latest Phase
284
Afterword
329
Copyright

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About the author (1979)

EDWARD W. SAID was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem and Cairo, and educated in the United States, where he attended Princeton (B.A. 1957) and Harvard (M.A. 1960; Ph.D. 1964). In 1963, he began teaching at Columbia University, where he was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He died in 2003 in New York City.

He is the author of twenty-two books which have been translated into 35 languages, including Orientalism (1978); The Question of Palestine (1979); Covering Islam (1980); The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983); Culture and Imperialism (1993); Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine and the Middle East Peace Process (1996); and Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). Besides his academic work, he wrote a twice-monthly column for Al-Hayat and Al-Ahram; was a regular contributor to newspapers in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; and was the music critic for The Nation.

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