Orientalism - Softcover

Edward W Said

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140551980 ISBN 13: 9780140551983

Publisher: Penguin, 1985

Synopsis

For generations now, Edward W. Said's Orientalism has defined our understanding of colonialism and empire, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition contains a preface written by Said shortly before his death in 2003.

In this highly-acclaimed work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation - a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the 'otherness' of eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West's romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. Drawing on his own experiences as an Arab Palestinian living in the West, Said examines how these ideas can be a reflection of European imperialism and racism.

Edward W. Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian-American cultural critic and author, born in Jerusalem and educated in Egypt and the United States. His other books include The Question of Palestine, Culture and Imperialism and Out of Place: A Memoir.

If you enjoyed Orientalism, you might like Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Stimulating, elegant and pugnacious'
Observer

'Beautifully patterned and passionately argued'
New Statesman

'Very exciting ... his case is not merely persuasive, but conclusive'
John Leonard, New York Times

'Magisterial'
Terry Eagleton

About this title

Review:

"The theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and trans-mitted... Orientalism is the example Mr. Said uses, and by it he means something precise. The scholar who studies the Orient (and specifically the Muslim Orient), the imaginitive writer who takes it as his subject, and the institutions which have been concerned with teaching it, settling it, ruling it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being other than the Occident, mysterious, unchanging and ultimately inferior." --Albert Hourani, New York Review of Books

"Intellectual history on a high order . . . and very exciting." --The New York Times

"Powerful and disturbing. . . . The theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and transmitted." --The New York Review of Books

"Stimulating, elegant yet pugnacious. . . . Said observes the West observing the Arabs, and he does not like what he finds." --The Observer

"An important book. . . . Never has there been as sustained and as persuasive a case against Orientalism as Said's." --Jerusalem Post

From the Back Cover:

In this highly-acclaimed work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation - a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the 'otherness' of eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West's romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. Drawing on his own experiences as an Arab Palestinian living in the West, Said examines how these ideas can be a reflection of European imperialism and racism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0140551980
• ISBN 13: 9780140551983
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384