Edward W. Said

Palestinian-born scholar, activist, and educator

• Pronunciation: WA-dee sah-EED
• Born: November 1, 1935
• Birthplace: Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel)
• Died: September 25, 2003
• Place of death: New York, New York

A scholar and educator, Said made significant contributions to the fields of literary and cultural criticism through his writings and is best known for his book Orientalism, an early work in the field of postcolonial studies. As a political activist, he was particularly interested in the issue of Palestinian nationhood.

Areas of achievement: Scholarship, activism, education

Early Life

Edward Wadie Said was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, on November 1, 1935, the son of William and Hilda Said. His father was an American citizen and had changed his name from Wadie to William while living the United States. Said’s affluent family spoke English and French and discouraged the speaking of Arabic. The family split its time between Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon and in 1947 left Palestine permanently. Said received his early education at the British preparatory school Victoria College. Upon his expulsion, his parents sent him to the United States to attend Mount Hermon School, a boarding school (now called Northfield Mount Hermon School).

Said enrolled in Princeton University after graduation, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1957. He went on to attend graduate school at Harvard University and received a master’s degree in English literature in 1960. In 1962, he married Maire Jaanus. The following year, he accepted a position as an instructor in the English Department at Columbia University. He completed his PhD, also in English literature, at Harvard in 1964. During his years at school, Said acquired native fluency in English, French, and Arabic and a reading knowledge of Latin, Spanish, Italian, and German.

Life’s Work

Said remained at Columbia for his entire teaching career. Becoming an assistant professor in 1965, he was later promoted to associate professor and in 1970 was appointed a full professor of English and comparative literature. He married Mariam Cortas that year, his first marriage having ended in divorce in 1967; the couple had a son and a daughter. During his career at Columbia, Said served as Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, and University Professor of English and Comparative Literature.

As well as being a respected educator, Said was a prolific writer. A specialist in English and comparative literature, he wrote books dealing with English and anglophone authors and the craft of writing. He published his first scholarly book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, in 1966. This text was followed in 1975 by a book addressing literary creativity, Beginnings: Intention and Method.

Throughout his life, Said felt a close tie to Palestine and his Palestinian heritage. He also had a strong sense of being out of place in the Western culture of the United States and the British-run schools of his youth. The Six-Day War in 1967 between Israel and several of the Arab nations was particularly distressing to Said, as it dispossessed a large number of Palestinians and placed many more under Israeli rule. As a result, Said began to question the West’s representation of the Orient, or East, in literature and art and in cultural attitudes. In 1978, Said published Orientalism, a book that would shape the field of postcolonial studies and influence numerous later scholars and authors.

Beginning in 1977, Said was actively involved in the Palestinian pursuit of nationhood. That year, he became a member of the Palestinian National Council; he served on the council until 1991, when he resigned due to his belief that it was making too many concessions. In 1979, he published his first book directly addressing the situation in the Middle East, The Question ofPalestine. Through the 1980s, he became a visible advocate for the rights of Palestinians, writing articles and making public and televised appearances. At the time, he supported the establishment of two independent political entities, Palestine and Israel; by the 1990s, he would come to advocate the creation of one democratic country comprising both states.

Although deeply involved in the politics of the Middle East, Said continued to address the issue of East versus West in theoretical terms through literary and cultural criticism. In 1983, he published The World, the Text, and the Critic, proposing ways in which critics could confront their own cultural preconceptions and biases. Early in the 1990s, Said was diagnosed with leukemia; however, treatment for the illness allowed him to continue his work. In 1994, he published another book on the Palestinian situation, The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969–1994. He published a memoir chronicling his childhood and education, Out of Place, in 1999.

In 2000, disillusioned with the peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel, Said published End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After. A lover of music and accomplished pianist, he coauthored the book Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (2002) with conductor Daniel Barenboim, with whom he also organized an Arab and Israeli youth orchestra. Several of Said’s books were published following his death in 2003, including Humanism and Democratic Criticism (2004), From Oslo to Iraq andtheRoad Map (2004), and On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain (2006).

Significance

One of the most influential literary and cultural critics of the twentieth century, Said challenged the West’s concept of Eastern culture and provided the base for the development of the field of postcolonial studies. Throughout his academic career, Said urged scholars to address their own preconceptions and prejudices and move beyond them. His work concerning Palestinian nationhood called attention to the issue and presented the Palestinian perspective to a wide academic and general audience. In 2001, the Lannan Foundation awarded Said a lifetime achievement award for his work in literature.

Bibliography

Iskandar, Adel, and Hakem Rustom, eds. Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation andRepresentation. Berkeley: U of California P, 2010. Print. Discusses Said’s influence in the development of criticism in a broad range of fields and his involvement in politics.

Said, Edward. Out of Place: A Memoir. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print. Explores Said’s early life and education, focusing particularly on his relationship with his parents and his sense of not belonging.

Varisco, Daniel Martin. Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid. Reprint. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2007. Print. Provides a comprehensive survey of Said’s writing and thinking as well as a history of the debate caused by Orientalism in several fields of scholarship.

Veeser, H. Aram. Edward Said: The Charisma of Criticism. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print. Presents an intimate portrait of Said as an intellectual and critic written by a former student and featuring interviews, transcripts, and other primary sources.