Note Type
Historical NoteNote
Edward Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian American political activist, scholar, and pioneering literary critic. He is best known for founding the academic field of post-colonial studies. This area of literary criticism was spearheaded by his book Orientalism (1978), which explores Eurocentric perspective of inherent Middle Eastern "otherness" that shapes Western narratives of the Orient. Born in Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine to an army veteran father with American citizenship, Said attended English-speaking schools in Cairo before emigrating to the United States in 1951. He later attended Princeton University (B.A., 1957) and Harvard University (M.A., 1960; Ph.D., 1964). After being initially hired by Columbia University as an English lecturer in 1963, he published his first book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, in 1966. He went on to become a full professor in 1969. Said spoke at over 200 universities in his lifetime, and served as a visiting professor at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and a Fellow at Stanford University. In 1977, he was elected to the Palestinian National Council. As an accomplished pianist, he authored and co-authored four music books and was fluent in English, Arabic, and French. Said continued teaching at Columbia University until his death from leukemia in 2003. Following his passing, friend Mahmoud Darwish eulogized his death with a public poem. Said is championed as one of America's greatest advocate for Palestinian rights and an independent Palestine, and one of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals.