Edward Said, Orientalism, and the problem of other
Date
2000
Authors
Harissi Dagher, Fadi
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Abstract
Edward W. Said offers an important critique of Western thinking. The critique of the discourse of Orientalism articulates the evasions, misrepresentations, and implicit violence of Western accounts of Palestinians in particular and Arabs in general. However, in so far as he sets himself within the Western humanist tradition, Said himself ends up appealing to the same tradition that he seeks to criticise. By positing a claim to universal truth, Said does not move beyond the point that Montesquieu reached in the 1gth century. The thesis argues that relentless contemporary post-structuralist critiques deployed in concert with the analysis that Said has offered is needed to develop new avenues of resistance, research, and politics.