Iskandar Adel - Edward Said, a legacy of emancipation and representation

PRAISE FOR EDWARD SAID: EMANCIPATION AND REPRESENTATION

The very distinguished and diverse group of scholars who have contributed to this volume explore and illuminate the intellectual and political dimensions, and profound impact, of Edward W. Saids life and work. Their original and lively essays enrich our understanding of Saids writings, and the book as a whole is both testimony and tribute to the continuing importance, vitality, and productivity of Saids legacy as a scholar, public intellectual, cultural critic, and political activist.

Zachary Lockman, author of Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism

In this remarkable and important book, the authors interact with Edward Said in so many different ways that the reader is both amazed and out of breath. This book makes one think.

Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

These fine essays bring sympathetic yet critical attention to Saids remarkable range of contributions to politics and to the study of literature and culture. Reading them, one gets a vivid sense not merely of his ideas and his arguments but his vast yet unsentimental humanity.

Akeel Bilgrami, Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University

This timely volume takes seriously the vast and challenging writings of Edward Said as they traverse the praxis of humanism, the literary contours of orientalism, and the intransigent and persistent critical of colonial power and the Palestinian struggle for freedom. A wide range of authors contest the proper stance and trajectory of Saids work, the ramifications of his work for literary studies, aesthetics, politics, the status of humanism, and secular criticism. They converge, however, in appreciating the passionate critique of colonial occupation and dispossession from the perspective of the displaced and the refugee. Taken together, these essays show how academic reflection can and must enter the public world at precisely those junctures that the border patrols of thought would shut down. They show that the critical responsibility of intellectuals consists in marshalling media for articulating loss and hope, insisting on a presence for those whose lives are threatened time and again with erasure. This is an important and rich volume that continues the critical task of Said in a plurivocal mode, establishing the unceasing intellectual force and fecundity of Saids work.

Judith Butler, University of California at Berkeley

Edward Said

A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation

Edited by

Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England

2010 by Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Edward Said : a legacy of emancipation and representation / edited by
Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-520-24546-4 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-520-25890-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Said, Edward W. 2. Orientalism. 3. Imperialism.

4. Arab-Israeli conflict. 5. Postcolonialism. I. Iskandar, Adel.

II. Rustom, Hakem.

CB18.S25E39 2010

306.092dc22

2009050627

Manufactured in the United States of America

19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% postconsumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas energy.

To the nomads whose morality, in Adornos words,
is to not be at home in ones home.

Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom

Joseph Massad

Ben Conisbee Baer

Michael Wood

Laura Nader

Nicholas B. Dirks

Timothy Brennan

Denise deCaires Narain

Katherine Callen King

Jahan Ramazani

Sabry Hafez

Anastasia Valassopoulos

Rokus de Groot

Hakem Rustom

Ardi Imseis

Avi Shlaim

Bill Ashcroft

Ghada Karmi

Jacqueline Rose

Ilan Pappe

Ella Shohat

Marc H. Ellis

Adel Iskandar

Robert Spencer

Abdirahman A. Hussein

R. Radhakrishnan

Asha Varadharajan

Lecia Rosenthal

W. J. T. Mitchell

Benita Parry

During the compilation and preparation of this book, we were the fortunate recipients of much encouragement and support from a large number of people, from close friends to enthusiastic colleagues. We can but mention them here as a modicum of acknowledgment for their contribution to this volume. Alas, so many people have supported this work that we regret this list cannot be as exhaustive as it should be. First and foremost, to the authors whose intellectually stimulating work compose this book, we applaud their illuminating, provocative, and contemplative contributions.

We could not have wished for a more dedicated, thoughtful, and supportive publisher than the team at the University of California Press. As to the executive editor Naomi Schneider, we are very fortunate to have her faith in this volume from the earliest days shortly after Saids passing and appreciate her ceaseless support and patience throughout. We are grateful to our project editor, Suzanne Knott, who navigated the work steadily toward the finish line and our extraordinarily meticulous and indefatigable copyeditor, Adrienne Harris, who read revision after revision of this voluminous manuscript while maintaining a most positive disposition. We extend our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers whose persuasive comments about the essays were instrumental in refining the work.

Joseph Massad has been an adamant supporter and advocate of this volume from its inception to its final publication. Our lengthy deliberations were always accented by his incisive comments, glaring honesty, and sharp wit. We also had the pleasure of meeting the gentle Mariam C. Said, whose encouragement and patience saw this volume to fruition. We are appreciative of the time she volunteered on numerous occasions and for her toleration of our all-too-frequent inquiries.

We are thankful to the organizers and participants of several conferences on Edward Said at the University of Sussex, University of Chicago, Bibliothque Nationale de France, School of Oriental and African Studies, and Edward Said Symposium in Berlin, where some of this volumes chapters were working papers. We are also indebted to Daniel Barenboim, Noam Chomsky, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivakall interviewed for this bookfor their accommodation and receptiveness. To Antje Werkmeister and Tabar Perlas at the Berlin Staatsoper and to Beverly Stohl at Noam Chomskys office, we offer thanks for their assistance in making the interviews possible. Rashid Khalidi, the editor of the