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Culture and
Imperialism
by Edward Said
In the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, as the Western
powers built empires that stretched from
Australia to the West Indies, Western artists
created masterpieces ranging from Mansfield
Park to Heart of Darkness and
Aida. Yet most cultural critics continue
to see these phenomena as seperate.
This landmark
book by the author of Orientalism
draws dramatic connections between the imperial
endeavor and the culture that both reflected
and reinforced it. At the same time, Edward
Said also examines the work of such writers
as W.B. Yeats, Chinua Achebe, and Salman
Rushdie to show how subject peoples produced
their own vigorous cultures of opposition
and resistance. Vast in scope and stunning
in its erudition, Culture and Imperialism
reopens the dialogue between literature
and the life of its time.
About the
Author
Edward Said,
who has died last year at age 67, was a
widely respected writer, scholar, and activist.
Dr. Said was a professor of literature at
Columbia University, and his book Orientalism
revolutionized the literary field. He was
one of the leading literary critics of the
last quarter of the 20th century, and he
was widely regarded as the outstanding representative
of the post-structuralist left in America.
Above all, he was the most articulate and
visible advocate of the Palestinian cause
in the United States.
Reviews
"Culture
and Imperialism has an eloquent, urgent
topicality rare in books by literary critics....
Said is a brilliant and unique amalgam of
scholar, aesthete and political activist....
[His] learning is global.... [He] challenges
and stimulates our thinking in every area."
- Washington Post Book World
"Grandly
conceived...urgently written and urgently
needed.... No one studying the relations
between the metropolitan West and the decolonizing
world can ignore Mr. Said's work."
- The New York Times Book Review
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