Jeanne Morefield - Unsettling the World (Modernity and Political Thought)

Series Editors:

Morton Schoolman , State University of New York at Albany

Kennan Ferguson , University of WisconsinMilwaukee

This unique collection of original studies of the great figures in the history of political and social thought critically examines their contributions to our understanding of modernity, its constitution, and the promise and problems latent within it. These works are written by some of the finest theorists of our time for scholars and students of the social sciences and humanities.

Titles in the Series

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Politics of the Ordinary by Tracy B. Strong

Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom by Thomas L. Dumm

Reading Adam Smith: Desire, History, and Value by Michael J. Shapiro

Thomas Hobbes: Skepticism, Individuality, and Chastened Politics by Richard E. Flathman

Thoreaus Nature: Ethics, Politics, and the Wild by Jane Bennett

G. W. F. Hegel: Modernity and Politics by Fred R. Dallmayr

The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt by Seyla Benhabib

William James: Politics in the Pluriverse by Kennan Ferguson

Merleau-Ponty and Modern Politics after Anti-Humanism by Diana Coole

Aquinas and Modernity: The Lost Promise of Natural Law by Shadia Drury

Carl Schmitt and the Intensification of Politics by Kam Shapiro

Impressions of Hume: Cinematic Thinking and the Politics of Discontinuity by Davide Pangia

Publius and Political Imagination by Jason Frank

Lincoln: The Ambiguous Icon by Steven Johnston

Unsettling the World: Edward Said and Political Theory by Jeanne Morefield

Edward Said and Political Theory

Jeanne Morefield

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE

Copyright 2022 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Morefield, Jeanne, 1967- author.
Title: Unsettling the world : Edward Said and political theory / Jeanne
Morefield.
Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. | Series:
Modernity and political thought | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Summary: "Jeanne Morefield synthesizes Palestinian American
theorist and cultural critic Edward Said's critical humanism as a
conceptual approach for addressing crises in contemporary global
politics that demands reflection about historical context and the nature
of the collective public before considering solutions to perceived
problems. Said's approach to humanistic inquiry speaks directly to the
way scholars of international ethics who speak from a liberal
internationalist perspective react to global crises by fixating on the
international status quo, often advocating global order for global
order's sake. In the process, Said's humanism transforms the very idea
of what it means to theorize global ethics in a postcolonial age and
offers a clarifying way to navigate through foreign policy discussions
with conflicting interest groups and ideologies"-- Provided by
publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022002853 (print) | LCCN 2022002854 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442260283 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538168622 (paperback) | ISBN
9781442260306 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Said, Edward W. | International relations--Moral and
ethical aspects. | Humanistic ethics.
Classification: LCC JZ1306 .M69 2022 (print) | LCC JZ1306 (ebook) | DDC
327.101--dc23/eng/20220304
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002853LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002854

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

For two dreams.

Thanking everyone who contributed in some fashion to the writing of a book this challenging to write is impossible. But I will try my best. For starters, I am enormously grateful to the two people who have spent the most time with the entire manuscript: James Tully and Michael Goodhart. Without their encouragement and thoughtful suggestions, the book would not exist as it does. The series editors for Modernity and Political Thought, Morton Schoolman and Kennan Ferguson, were also extraordinarily helpful and careful readers, and I thank them heartily for encouraging me to write for the series in the first place. I am also deeply grateful to all the people who commented on portions of this text in progress as well as reflecting on bits and pieces of my thinking about Said as it evolved, in particular: Arash Davari, Patchen Markell, Bashir AbuManneh, Asav Siniver, Duncan Bell, Craig Borowiak, Elizabeth Wingrove, Paul Apostolidis, and Hagar Kotef.

Over the years, I have benefited enormously from spirited conversations with friends and colleagues about this book, about Said and his work, and about the relationship between that work, political theory, and imperialism. These include: Patrick Porter, Eskandar Sadeghi, Lawrie Balfour, Murad Idris, Joshua Foa Dienstag, Samuel Moyn, Davide Panagia, Melvin Rogers, Sarah ElKazaz, Onur Ulas Ince, Jacqueline Rose, Akeel Bilgrami, Ella Myers, Nicholas Kompridis, Allison Weir, Jack (Chip) Turner, Ins Valdez, Elyse Semerdjian, Gaurav Majumdar, Paul Bov, Joseph Carens, Jennifer Nedelsky, Yves Winter, Catherine Liu, Jennifer Pitts, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Daniel Lee, Joshua Cohen, Alisa Kessel, Romand Coles, Adom Getachew, Robert Vitalis, Jason Frank, Mary Katzenstein, Peter Katzenstein, Jonathan Kirschner, Turkul Isiksel, Susan BuckMorss, James Muldoon, Yasamin Altara, and Anna Apostolidis.

Thank you to the librarians at the Columbia University Library Archives for allowing me access to Saids papers. Thank you to Whitman College for a longago sabbatical that proved so productive and the University of Birmingham for their initial support and a place to thrive. I am also hugely grateful to Oxford University and New College for giving me a new intellectual home during some dark academic times and for providing me with the funds to pay for bits and pieces of this project. I am particularly grateful to my political theory colleagues for opening Oxfords doors to work like this. In particular, huge thanks to Lois McNay, Teresa Bejan, Sophie Smith, Amia Srinivasan, and Elizabeth Frazer for their constant support as I navigate the intricacies of this internal/external world.

This book would not look like it does without the help of some very talented people. Judy Dunlop was initially described to me as a celebrated indexer and this has proved to be the case. Very few people could have navigated the unresolved intricacies of Saids work with such precision and sympathetic finesse. Jon Sisk, Sarah Sichina, and Caje Brennan Knight at Rowman and Littlefield were also extraordinarily helpful, patient, and attentive throughout the editing process. Additionally, locating the credits for the stunning art that graces the cover of this book was a journey in and of itself. Credit goes to Zied Hadhri (Jebiniana, Tunisia 2012) for the outstanding picture of a mural created by the Tunisbased art collective, Ahl Alkahf, whose goal is to de-centralize art and open it for the public. But locating the rights to an image produced by an anonymous collective required the help of a whole host of people (Zied Hadrhi, Jacob Geuder, Shuk Ying Chan, Liona Neubert) who helped relay messages from Berlin, to Shanghai, to Tunis, to Berne, to Oxforda contrapuntal ensemble that I like to believe would have made Said proud.