The Multiple Facets of Representation As Seen By Edward Said

Said’s postulations have a constitutive influence on Post-Colonial criticism. Being a practicing critic, an academic in the renowned US Columbia University, and an active intellectual in the Arab and the American intellectual scenes testifies to the instrumental role he played and still plays in shaping critical orientations concerning the representation of the Arabs/Palestinians/ Muslims in and by the West. This book undertakes the discussion of Said’s views concerning representation as an activity involved in all cultural practices. It addresses Said’s views concerning the misguided representation of the Orient(als) in Western culture and the entailing translation of Orientalist discourse into political, economic and military domination. The book also deals with the dimension of resistance to imperialist domination, the emergence of nationalist consciousness and its fundamental impact on resistance cultures as it appears in Said’s works. It finally investigates two main strains in Said’s postulations: the first is the role of criticism as an activity informing and informed by the society in which it is practiced; and the second is the intellectual’s function in society.