Edward Said

[Original Dutch article published on Sep 30, 2003; English version is due to google translate and some minor changes] Edward Said is dead. Last Wednesday he lost his battle with cancer. The influence of this Palestinian writer in all areas of the social sciences of the last quarter century is immense. Many will remember him from Delhi to Dar Es Salaam, from Paris to Chicago; many will also write …

[Original , published in ASIANetwork Exchange XVI (1): 57–63.] During the last two decades, I have been pursuing an unorthodox way of studying cultural differences, focusing mainly on the Indian and the western cultures. Because I believe that one can answer questions about the circumscription of the words ‘Indian’ and ‘western’ cultures satisfactorily (Balangangadhara, 1994), I will assume their …

Though the book was published nearly two decades ago, Said’s Orientalism continues to be topical. Many have rejected the message of this work; others have attempted to develop its arguments yet further. This article will not be one more interpretation of Said’s book; after all, there are many such interpretations, including Said’s own. Instead, it probes the phenomenon of ‘post-Orientalism’. Even …

Is the division between the West and East Orientalist in nature? Well, that is what Edward Said says in his Orientalism; that is what many writers in his wake say too. I beg to disagree. Let me make but three points. One: that there is an Indian culture and a western culture has been established in my book. (Of course, it is also an experiential given.) Consequently, I have just presumed this …

I have had difficulties in understanding the use and meaning of some words, especially ’essentialism’ and its cognates. Here are some uses of “essentialism” I am familiar with. One uses ’essences’ to designate some basic or fundamental or determining properties of an object, as in: “Water is essentially H2O”. Here the claim is that some liquid is water if and only if it has the chemical structure …