Edward Said and the Question of Language

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Atef Alshaer (University of Westminster)

Ed. by Rita Sakr, Maynooth University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 6.1.4: Arab Diasporic Literature and Culture (Anglophone/ Francophone/ Other), 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Anna Bernard (King's College London), Joseph Farag (University of Minnesota), Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Nora Parr (SOAS, University of London), Rita Sakr (Maynooth University), Anastasia Valassopoulos (University of Manchester)

Domains

Language & Linguistics
Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1978-2003

Places

United States (Location)
Palestine (Involved)

Resources

Recommended Reading

Introduction

It is characteristic of Said that he uses an open style of writing, which, although populated with positions, distinctions, criticisms and generalisations, is equally open to diverse and contrarian views. He does this in a way that is concurrent with his understanding of language as an infinite field of constructive possibility and humane exploration that affords responsible conduct and sensitivity. There are two dimensions that Said reiterates with unabashed passion in several of his writings. One is his suspicion of views and programmes propped up as pure human creations untouched by external contexts, no matter how aesthetically sublime or cognitively astute. This applies as much to Beethoven&r…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

6884 words

Citation: Alshaer, Atef. "Edward Said and the Question of Language". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2022 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19669, accessed 21 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here