The World, the Text, and the Critic

“A genuinely emergent way of thinking.”―Raymond Williams, The Guardian“Provocative and exacting … . the book issues from a remarkably sharp intelligence, forcing us to face questions and possibilities that literary theorists on the whole prefer not even to raise.”―Denis Donoghue, The New Republic“[Said] challenges and stimulates our thinking in every area.”—The Washington Post Book World“Said reads passionately and bravely… . He challenges everyone to read fiction in the most comprehensive manner possible.”—Philadelphia Inquirer“The intellectual excitement of each essay and the enlightening effect of the brilliant thinking and writing of the book as a whole move the reader to the recognition of Said’s major contribution to contemporary literary critical theory and practice.”―English Literature in Transition“Said’s extraordinary moral imagination, political range, and cultural awareness provide a unique perspective.”—Richard Falk

EDWARD W. SAID was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem and Cairo, and educated in the United States, where he attended Princeton (B.A. 1957) and Harvard (M.A. 1960; Ph.D. 1964). In 1963, he began teaching at Columbia University, where he was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He is the author of twenty-two books which have been translated into thirty-five languages, including Orientalism (1978); The Question of Palestine (1979); Covering Islam (1980); The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983); Culture and Imperialism (1993); Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine and the Middle East Peace Process (1996); and Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). He died in 2003 in New York City.