Edward Said, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Edward Said

professor of literature and a public intellectual

Date of Birth: 01-Nov-1935

Place of Birth: Jerusalem, Israel

Date of Death: 25-Sep-2003

Profession: writer, journalist, literary critic, philosopher, musicologist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Edward Said

  • Edward Wadie Said (; Arabic: ?????? ???? ????? [wædi?? sæ?i?d], Idward Wadi? Sa?id; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.
  • A Palestinian American born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S.
  • Army veteran. Educated in the Western canon, at British and American schools, Said applied his education and bi-cultural perspective to illuminating the gaps of cultural and political understanding between the Western world and the Eastern world, especially about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the Middle East; his principal influences were Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, AimĂ© CĂ©saire, Michel Foucault, and Theodor Adorno.As a cultural critic, Said is known for the book Orientalism (1978), a critique of the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism—how the Western world perceives the Orient.
  • Said's model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse of researchers in literary theory, literary criticism, and Middle-Eastern studies—how academics examine, describe, and define the cultures being studied.
  • As a foundational text, Orientalism was controversial among scholars of Oriental Studies, philosophy, and literature.As a public intellectual, Said was a controversial member of the Palestinian National Council, due to his public criticism of Israel and the Arab countries, especially the political and cultural policies of Muslim rĂ©gimes who acted against the national interests of their peoples.
  • Said advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state to ensure equal political and human rights for the Palestinians in Israel, including the right of return to the homeland.
  • He defined his oppositional relation with the status quo as the remit of the public intellectual who has "to sift, to judge, to criticize, to choose, so that choice and agency return to the individual" man and woman. In 1999, with his friend Daniel Barenboim, Said co-founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, based in Seville, which comprises young Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab musicians.
  • Besides being an academic, Said was also an accomplished pianist, and, with Barenboim, co-authored the book Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (2002), a compilation of their conversations about music.Said died of leukemia on 24 September 2003.

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