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Edward Said

Palestinian-American professor (1935-2003) · United States · Academics · Died at 67

Edward Said is read about 1,496 times a day, in 76 languages.

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The critic who rewrote how the West sees the East. Orientalism, his 1978 book, argued that centuries of Western scholarship and art didn't just describe the Middle East and Asia - they invented them, turning living societies into exotic fantasies that justified empire.

WritersWriter / AuthorLiteratureJournalismPhilosophyMusicUnited StatesAmericas

A life in dates

2003Died25 September 20032002Princess of Asturias Award for ConcordAward2001Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VIIAward2000Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardsAward1999“I’ve always been interested in what gets left out.”In their wordsAugust 1999"An Interview with Edward W. Said" (New York, July-August 1999), The Edward Said Reader (2000) edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin,

1998International Nonino PrizeAward1996American Book AwardsAward1993“The history of other cultures is non-existent until it erupts in confrontation with the United States.”In their wordsChap 4, Sect 2

“There is no getting around authority and power, and no getting around the intellectual's relationship to them.”In their wordsp. 83

1986Messenger LecturesAward1983“The prevailing situation of criticism ... has given rise to a cult of professional expertise whose effect in general is pernicious.”In their words(pp. 2-3)

“The intellectual origins of literary theory in Europe were, I think it is accurate to say, insurrectionary.”In their words(pp. 3-4)

1972Guggenheim FellowshipAward1967“When one learns something one first performs an act of will, because only by willing to learn can one learn.”In their words"Vico: Autodidact and Humanist," The Centennial Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer 1967), p. 340

1935Born1 November 1935

Also in Deutsch

Photos 9

Edward Said and his sister, Rosemarie Said, dressed in traditional Arab clothing, 1940Edward Said and his sister, Rosemarie Said, dressed in traditional Arab clothing, 1940The 19th-century novelist Joseph Conrad is the subject of Said's first book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966).The 19th-century novelist Joseph Conrad is the subject of Said's first book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966).The cover of the book Orientalism (1978) is a detail from the 19th-century Orientalist painting The Snake Charmer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904).The cover of the book Orientalism (1978) is a detail from the 19th-century Orientalist painting The Snake Charmer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904).The Motherland and her dependent colonies are the subjects of post-colonial studies (William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1883).The Motherland and her dependent colonies are the subjects of post-colonial studies (William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1883).The administrative domains of the Palestinian Authority (red)The administrative domains of the Palestinian Authority (red)For throwing a stone at an Israeli guardhouse across the Blue Line Lebanese-Israeli border, Commentary magazine labelled Said "The Professor of Terror" in 2000.[77]For throwing a stone at an Israeli guardhouse across the Blue Line Lebanese-Israeli border, Commentary magazine labelled Said "The Professor of Terror" in 2000.[77]The harmonious Middle East: the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel BarenboimThe harmonious Middle East: the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim

In their own words 10

,
Edward Said
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. I’ve always been interested in what gets left out.

    Aug 1999, "An Interview with Edward W. Said" (New York, July-August 1999), The Edward Said Reader (2000) edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin,, Own words

  2. The central fact for me is, I think, that the [role of the] intellectual ...

    1994, Representation of the Intellectual (1994), Own words

  3. The history of other cultures is non-existent until it erupts in confrontation with the United States.

    1993, Chap 4, Sect 2, Own words

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Awards

Princess of Asturias Award for Concord2002
Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VII2001
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards2000
International Nonino Prize1998
American Book Awards1996
Messenger Lectures1986
Guggenheim Fellowship1972

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About this person

Born in Jerusalem in 1935, Said was a U.S. citizen through his father's military service, but the 1948 war sent the family to Egypt and eventually America. He moved through Victoria College in Cairo and prep school in Massachusetts before Princeton and a Harvard doctorate in English literature. At Columbia from 1963 until his death, he became a founder of post-colonial studies, drawing on Gramsci, Fanon, and Foucault to build a model of textual analysis that changed how scholars read power and culture. He joined the Palestinian National Council and pushed for a two-state solution with the right of return, then quit in 1993 over the Oslo Accords; by 1999 he'd shifted to arguing only one binational state could hold. He lectured at more than 200 universities and defined his work as the intellectual's duty: to sift, judge, criticize, so that choice returns to the individual. He died in September 2003.

Country
United States
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1935 to 2003 · aged 67

In common with Edward

J. Robert OppenheimerBoth received Messenger LecturesBronisław MalinowskiBoth received Messenger LecturesEdward ThorndikeBoth received Messenger Lectures

Academics from the United States 3

Paul Samuelson67.8B. F. Skinner67.4Ted Nelson67.9

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