Edward Said example essay topic

Edward Said once said", Remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere... and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights". In these words perhaps one can sense the conviction of Edward Said, the activist, the intellectual, the humanist, the dissident, the abiding and radiant light in a world suffused with darkness. It is difficult if not impossible to estimate the influence that Said had on a whole generation of individuals like myself; how he made us rethink our priorities, question the purpose of our scholarship and refashion our beliefs and ideas; above all perhaps how he placed the plight of the Palestinian people and oppressed people generally squarely within our lived realities so that the struggle for the liberation of Palestine became our struggle as Khalil Barhoum stated in the Jordan Times Said "provided us with a moral compass, one that helped us navigate a path through the murky moral and political terrain which have often impeded a clear perception of the enduring justice of the Palestinian cause". The question then is how do you begin to do justice to a person of such proportions, such stature and such capability?

How can you begin to articulate the immense contributions Said made in fields as far-ranging as literary criticism, linguistics, cultural studies, comparative literature and post-colonial studies? I can only attempt in some small and insignificant way to present my understanding of the complex phenomenon called "Edward Said" he was after all as remarked" A Giant amongst pygmies". When I think of Said, I think about a number of things, I think about truth, I think about power and I think about the relationship between knowledge and systems of oppression, but most importantly perhaps, I think about transformation and the need for change in a world marred by abiding injustice, chronic conflict and war. Said had that kind of profound and lasting effect on people. "Said was" as Ill an Papp e commented in his tribute in The Haaretz Newspaper " the lighthouse that navigated us out of darkness and confusion onto the safer coast of reason, morality and consciousness". For me, Said was arguably the most important Western Palestinian intellectual of the 20th century, a man of enduring creativity, expression and intellectual honour.

Along with people like Bertrand Russell, E. P Thompson, Noam Chomsky and the Late Ahmed Iqbal, he was one of the heroes of our time, he spoke against the spirit of our age, against the entrenched wisdom's of our time, he questioned the legitimacy of repressive structures of power, he challenged the function and role of intellectuals and he exposed the vast aggression committed by states in the name of problematic ideals like colonialism, imperialism and Zionism. His work was underpinned by a vision which only be described as an unrelenting and uncompromising adherence to the principles of humanism, those libertarian impulses that bind us together in this tiny planet. As Said once commented " Humanism is the only and final resistance we have against the inhuman practises and injustices that disfigure human history". I first became familiar with the work of Said while studying for a master's degree at the Centre for Equality and Discrimination at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. I remember reading an article that had written about a book by the respected journalist, and now foreign policy expert, Judith Williamson called "God has 99 names".

In this book Williamson had restated some of the stereotypical assumptions about Islam and Muslims and in the normal fashion that you become accustomed to in the West had totally misrepresented Islam, the Quran and the beliefs and practises of Muslims. Saids response was a masterful and damning critique of Williamson's book, piece by piece Said dissected Williamson's book in the manner of a skilled surgeon performing a complex procedure, and in doing so exposing the assumptions, caricatures and distortions that underpinned her book. I was astounded by the precise and skilful way that Said had used his pen to render Williamson's book as nothing more than a collection of racist stereotypes. This first encounter with Saids work was to become a lasting and avid fascination with both his political and academic writings. Saids mastery of language, his astute analysis, his wit and charm appealed to me in a way that very few authors did and have done.

I was amazed to later discover that Said was not a Muslim as I had expected but rather a Palestinian Christian, who was born in Jerusalem, educated in Cairo and Professor of Comparative literature at Columbia University. In a strange way this first encounter with Saids work made me re-examine my own assumptions about academic integrity and the notion of truth. It made me understand that our ideological, religious or national affiliations can never stand in the way of truth rather, as Said made me realise, To quest for truth is to strive towards the attainment of the highest human desire, the desire to be human. This desire manifests itself in the daily struggles of oppressed people the world over, it expresses itself in the resilience of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation, it was evident in the struggles against colonial power and it is written in the narratives of resistance against all forms of coercion and domination.

Said sought to decipher and demystify the complex and often hidden forms of domination not only in the reality of people's lives but also in the context of Literature, culture and the arts. His seminal work "orientalism" examined the production of knowledge and the systems of thoughts and ideas that produced the "east" or the "orient" as a focus of study. "Orientalism" revolutionise d the way in which we understand the relationship between the occident and the orient. Said argued that the orient was as much an ideology as a set of passive ideas, it was an ideology that was given force by the institutions of western power that reproduced and maintained it.

While "Orientalism" will be remembered as Said's seminal work, the range and extent of his academic achievements and contributions are immeasurable. He examined the ways in which imbalances of power are preserved and reinforced. He examined the extent to which representation and culture can become tools of political propaganda and exploitation. He examined the ways in which so-called "neutral" institutions like the media, and academic disciplines like literature and the social sciences reproduces and distort social realms. He examined history not as an unconcerned external observer but as a participant. His own narrative of exile and dispossession served as a template within which he examined ideas of memory, imagination and belonging.

Said also made vast contributions to our understanding of and relationship to injustice and oppression. He widened the scope for individuals to question and ultimately challenge power, to confront injustice and to understand the ways in which ideas structure the material reality in which we reside. Of course in a world in which the comfort of the ivory tower ensures virtual immunity from criticism, Said was amongst those who shouldered the burden of his convictions by speaking truth against power and confronting the role of academics, intellectuals and institutions and as a result he suffered the consequences. Vitriolic attacks, distortions, attempts to question his integrity constantly shadowed said life: but rather than undermining his credibility these added to the stature of Said as a latter day Copernicus, a constant thorn in the side of the establishment. As one of the most strident and vocal advocates of Palestinian rights Said spoke to the masses in a voice that resounded with a deep humanism, compassion and solidarity, it was a voice that understood the necessity for reason and understanding and it drew you to the possibility of social change. In his book " The end of Oslo" Said was one of the first to articulate how the process of Oslo was premised on preserving the power imbalances and injustices between the Palestinians and the Zionists.

For many in the Western World he was the counterbalance to the propaganda, lies and distortions of the western political and media elites; he was able to express clearly and succinctly the plight and concerns of the Palestinian people while simultaneously raising awareness of the gross injustices and atrocities being committed by the Zionist state with the complicity of America and large segments of the Western world. Saids death has left a vacuum in the intellectual world, a chasm of enormous proportions, but his legacy lives on in the hopes and desires of people to challenge falsehood and injustice. Said can be situated at the interface between "worldly politics" and the narratives that produce them, the fault line between ideology and practise. If there is something that I have learned from Saids thoughts and ideas it is that the vast and overbearing structures of power that would have us believe that resistance is futile and that struggle is useless, create the very possibilities for change, it is perhaps the enduring legacy of a great man that we can now move towards the ideas and values that he held so deeply in his life.

It was Hannah Arendt who said that "Education is the point at which we love the world enough to take responsibility for it" and in this sense Said stood for education as a means of taking responsibility. As students, academics and as human beings we have to strive in the footsteps of giants like Said to intervene in the lives of the less fortunate and to confront oppression and injustice. I salute you Edward Said and offer my humble gratitude to you for showing people like myself and many others that our small and insignificant lives can in some way contribute to freeing the people of Palestine from the horrific and vast aggression being committed against them and in some way I know that had it not been for your commitment and effort in highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people me my wife and children may not have been here in Palestine today.