A Said Dictionary

The work of Edward W. Said, one of the key theorists and cultural critics of the twentieth century, has been continually misunderstood and misappropriated by readers from a range of ideological standpoints. This engaging new book maps out Said′s critical and theoretical world using the key terms and concepts that he utilized in his work and examines how he molded his vocabulary to meet the needs of the changing world around him. Original and creative, Said brought his perspective to bear on the existing critical idiom and made an indelible impression on it in both academic and public arenas. He was able to successfully combine the erudition of the specialist and the transparent accountability of a public intellectual committed to humanity at large. Analysing the ways in which he interacted with and differed from his contemporary theorists and exploring his lasting influence, this interpretive dictionary endeavours to do justice to the full scope of his work and his inimitable legacy.

List of terms ix Preface xi Dictionary 1 Bibliography 159 Index 171

R. Radhakrishnan is Chancellor′s Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Diasporic Mediations (1996), Theory in an Uneven World (Blackwell, 2003), Between Identity and Location: The Cultural Politics of Theory (2007), History, the Human, and the World Between (2008), and editor of Theory as Variation (2007), Transnational South Asians: The Making of a Neo–Diaspora (with Susan Koshy, 2008), and Theory after Derrida: Essays in Critical Praxis (with Kailash Baral, 2009). His essays have appeared in a wide range of international journals and collecitons. Translator of contemporary Tamil fiction into English, he is also the author of a volume of poems in Tamil.

“This book is an excellent introduction to the variety and complexity of Said’s work (as Radhakrishnan points out, Said was not interested in constructing some monolithic system), and will no doubt be of interest to those more familiar with his work too.”  ( Reference Reviews , 1 June 2013) “This just may be the kind of Said that all who hold him in esteem have awaited.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper–division undergraduates and above.”  ( Choice , 1 November 2012)