Edward W. Said was University Professor at Columbia University.

A compilation of 35 years' worth of critical essays from one of the boldest and most articulate cultural theorists alive today. For those who know Said foremost as an outspoken and controversial advocate of Palestine, the breadth of intellectual curiosity and erudition manifest in these collected works will come as a pleasant surprise. Not until halfway through the anthology is there any mention of Palestine, and even in those essays that deal with his homeland, the author uses his unparalleled knowledge of the subject to illustrate larger points about anthropology, human rights, or nationalism...Said demonstrates that he is indeed a modern teacher and critic of the highest order...And yet, even the least political of his essays further his goal: to deprive us of our complacency by reminding us again and again that all knowledge is mediated by power, and no one is immune to its balance...Fascinating.

• Introduction 1. Labyrinth of Incarnations: The Essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty 2. Sense and Sensibility On R. P. Blackmur, Georges Poulet, and E. D. Hirsc 3. Amateur of the Insoluble On E. M. Cioran 4. A Standing Civil War On T. E. Lawrence 5. Arabic Prose and Prose Fiction after 1948 6. Between Chance and Determinism: Lukacs's Aesthetik 7. Conrad and Nietzsche 8. Vico on the Discipline of Bodies and Texts 9. Tourism among the Dogs On George Orwell 10. Bitter Dispatches from the Third World 11. Grey Eminence On Walter Lippmann 12. Among the Believers On V. S. Naipaul 13. Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies, and Community 14. Bursts of Meaning On John Berger and Jean Mohr 15. Egyptian Rites 16. The Future of Criticism 17. Reflections on Exile 18. Michel Foucault, 1927-1984 19. Orientalism Reconsidered 20. Remembrances of Things Played: Presence and Memory in the Pianist's Art On Glenn Gould 21. How Not to Get Gored On Ernest Hemingway 22. Foucault and the Imagination of Power 23. The Horizon of R. P. Blackmur 24. Cairo Recalled: Growing Up in the Cultural Crosscurrents of 1940s Egypt 25. Through Gringo Eyes: With Conrad in Latin America 26. The Quest for Gillo Pontecorv 27. Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors 28. After Mahfouz 29. Jungle Calling On Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan 30. Cairo and Alexandria 31. Homage to a Belly-Dancer On Tahia Carioca 32. Introduction to Moby-Dick 33. The Politics of Knowledge 34. Identity, Authority, and Freedom: The Potentate and the Traveler 35. The Anglo-Arab Encounter On Ahdaf Soueif 36. Nationalism, Human Rights, and Interpretation 37. Traveling Theory Reconsidered 38. History, Literature, and Geography 39. Contra Mundum On Eric Hobsbawm 40. Bach's Genius, Schumann's Eccentricity, Chopin's Ruthlessness, Rosen's Gift 41. Fantasy's Role in the Making of Nations On Jacqueline Rose 42. On Defiance and Taking Positions 43. From Silence to Sound and Back Again: Music, Literature, and History 44. On Lost Causes 45. Between Worlds 46. The Clash of Definitions On Samuel Huntington Notes Credits Index

Edward W. Said was University Professor at Columbia University.

A compilation of 35 years' worth of critical essays from one of the boldest and most articulate cultural theorists alive today. For those who know Said foremost as an outspoken and controversial advocate of Palestine, the breadth of intellectual curiosity and erudition manifest in these collected works will come as a pleasant surprise. Not until halfway through the anthology is there any mention of Palestine, and even in those essays that deal with his homeland, the author uses his unparalleled knowledge of the subject to illustrate larger points about anthropology, human rights, or nationalism...Said demonstrates that he is indeed a modern teacher and critic of the highest order...And yet, even the least political of his essays further his goal: to deprive us of our complacency by reminding us again and again that all knowledge is mediated by power, and no one is immune to its balance...Fascinating.

• Introduction 1. Labyrinth of Incarnations: The Essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty 2. Sense and Sensibility On R. P. Blackmur, Georges Poulet, and E. D. Hirsc 3. Amateur of the Insoluble On E. M. Cioran 4. A Standing Civil War On T. E. Lawrence 5. Arabic Prose and Prose Fiction after 1948 6. Between Chance and Determinism: Lukacs's Aesthetik 7. Conrad and Nietzsche 8. Vico on the Discipline of Bodies and Texts 9. Tourism among the Dogs On George Orwell 10. Bitter Dispatches from the Third World 11. Grey Eminence On Walter Lippmann 12. Among the Believers On V. S. Naipaul 13. Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies, and Community 14. Bursts of Meaning On John Berger and Jean Mohr 15. Egyptian Rites 16. The Future of Criticism 17. Reflections on Exile 18. Michel Foucault, 1927-1984 19. Orientalism Reconsidered 20. Remembrances of Things Played: Presence and Memory in the Pianist's Art On Glenn Gould 21. How Not to Get Gored On Ernest Hemingway 22. Foucault and the Imagination of Power 23. The Horizon of R. P. Blackmur 24. Cairo Recalled: Growing Up in the Cultural Crosscurrents of 1940s Egypt 25. Through Gringo Eyes: With Conrad in Latin America 26. The Quest for Gillo Pontecorv 27. Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors 28. After Mahfouz 29. Jungle Calling On Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan 30. Cairo and Alexandria 31. Homage to a Belly-Dancer On Tahia Carioca 32. Introduction to Moby-Dick 33. The Politics of Knowledge 34. Identity, Authority, and Freedom: The Potentate and the Traveler 35. The Anglo-Arab Encounter On Ahdaf Soueif 36. Nationalism, Human Rights, and Interpretation 37. Traveling Theory Reconsidered 38. History, Literature, and Geography 39. Contra Mundum On Eric Hobsbawm 40. Bach's Genius, Schumann's Eccentricity, Chopin's Ruthlessness, Rosen's Gift 41. Fantasy's Role in the Making of Nations On Jacqueline Rose 42. On Defiance and Taking Positions 43. From Silence to Sound and Back Again: Music, Literature, and History 44. On Lost Causes 45. Between Worlds 46. The Clash of Definitions On Samuel Huntington Notes Credits Index

Edward W. Said was University Professor at Columbia University.

A compilation of 35 years' worth of critical essays from one of the boldest and most articulate cultural theorists alive today. For those who know Said foremost as an outspoken and controversial advocate of Palestine, the breadth of intellectual curiosity and erudition manifest in these collected works will come as a pleasant surprise. Not until halfway through the anthology is there any mention of Palestine, and even in those essays that deal with his homeland, the author uses his unparalleled knowledge of the subject to illustrate larger points about anthropology, human rights, or nationalism...Said demonstrates that he is indeed a modern teacher and critic of the highest order...And yet, even the least political of his essays further his goal: to deprive us of our complacency by reminding us again and again that all knowledge is mediated by power, and no one is immune to its balance...Fascinating.

• Introduction 1. Labyrinth of Incarnations: The Essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty 2. Sense and Sensibility On R. P. Blackmur, Georges Poulet, and E. D. Hirsc 3. Amateur of the Insoluble On E. M. Cioran 4. A Standing Civil War On T. E. Lawrence 5. Arabic Prose and Prose Fiction after 1948 6. Between Chance and Determinism: Lukacs's Aesthetik 7. Conrad and Nietzsche 8. Vico on the Discipline of Bodies and Texts 9. Tourism among the Dogs On George Orwell 10. Bitter Dispatches from the Third World 11. Grey Eminence On Walter Lippmann 12. Among the Believers On V. S. Naipaul 13. Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies, and Community 14. Bursts of Meaning On John Berger and Jean Mohr 15. Egyptian Rites 16. The Future of Criticism 17. Reflections on Exile 18. Michel Foucault, 1927-1984 19. Orientalism Reconsidered 20. Remembrances of Things Played: Presence and Memory in the Pianist's Art On Glenn Gould 21. How Not to Get Gored On Ernest Hemingway 22. Foucault and the Imagination of Power 23. The Horizon of R. P. Blackmur 24. Cairo Recalled: Growing Up in the Cultural Crosscurrents of 1940s Egypt 25. Through Gringo Eyes: With Conrad in Latin America 26. The Quest for Gillo Pontecorv 27. Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors 28. After Mahfouz 29. Jungle Calling On Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan 30. Cairo and Alexandria 31. Homage to a Belly-Dancer On Tahia Carioca 32. Introduction to Moby-Dick 33. The Politics of Knowledge 34. Identity, Authority, and Freedom: The Potentate and the Traveler 35. The Anglo-Arab Encounter On Ahdaf Soueif 36. Nationalism, Human Rights, and Interpretation 37. Traveling Theory Reconsidered 38. History, Literature, and Geography 39. Contra Mundum On Eric Hobsbawm 40. Bach's Genius, Schumann's Eccentricity, Chopin's Ruthlessness, Rosen's Gift 41. Fantasy's Role in the Making of Nations On Jacqueline Rose 42. On Defiance and Taking Positions 43. From Silence to Sound and Back Again: Music, Literature, and History 44. On Lost Causes 45. Between Worlds 46. The Clash of Definitions On Samuel Huntington Notes Credits Index