Status
Available
Publication
New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1993.
Description
A landmark work from the author of Orientalism that explores the long-overlooked connections between the Western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the Western powers built empires that stretched from Australia to the West Indies, Western artists created masterpieces ranging from Mansfield Park to Heart of Darkness and Aida. Yet most cultural critics continue to see these phenomena as separate. Edward Said looks at these works alongside those of such writers as W. B. Yeats, Chinua Achebe, and Salman Rushdie to show how subject peoples produced their own vigorous cultures of opposition and resistance. Vast in scope and stunning in its erudition, Culture and Imperialism reopens the dialogue between literature and the life of its time.… (more)
Media reviews
...[W]hat accounts for Orientalism' s insurgent existence is its relentless transgression of boundaries drawn by disciplines of knowledge and imperial governance. Unsettling received oppositions between the Orient and the Occident, reading literary texts as historical and theoretical events....
User reviews
LibraryThing member The_Hibernator
Culture and Imperialism describes how the language used in literature can powerfully impact our stereotypes of other cultures. Using examples in classical literature (ranging from Jane Austen, to Joseph Conrad, to Albert Camus), Said shows us how imperialism was reinforced by the written word.
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Then, (using examples including V.S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie) he illuminates how today's societies - who are so focused on multi-culturalism - read the right books for the wrong reasons. I found this book intriguing. I listened to it on audiobook - Ganim's reading was smooth and engaging - but I'm now tempted to pick up a hard-copy of the book and use it as a reference in my perusal of literature. This book would be interesting to anyone interested in the culture of imperialism or in literary criticism of literature in the imperialist era. Show Less
LibraryThing member tngolden
This book sets up a framework through which to examine and critique the effects of colonialism. While colonialism directly relates to the subjegation and
LibraryThing member jcelrod
A very interesting application of Said's orientalism to various works of canonical literature.
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
A great book on its subject, Said's prose avoids being technical by bearing academic merit while, at the same time, being accessible to the common reader. The theories that he purports are illustrated through many examples across various cultures, sub-cultures, and nations. Overall, this was a
4 stars-- this was worth it.
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tremendously satisfying read and an enlightening one as well. 4 stars-- this was worth it.
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LibraryThing member b.masonjudy
Said didn't break me but came very close. More than anything, I appreciated his continual return to the context and geography of colonialism and the way that this makes works of pro-colonialist texts, such as Camus, more interesting as sites of inquiry. Rejecting a dismissal Said calls on a
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contrapuntal reading that engages critically with texts that have been wrest from their context and universalized. The problems if the modern academy in chapter 4 left me feeling defeated as it still seems as if most critical studies have been neutered in their political efficacy. Show Less
LibraryThing member RajivC
The book will change the way you read the old classics - if you are Asian or have been colonized. When I read, for instance, "Heart of Darkness," I did not think of it as a book with imperialist overtones. However, authors are products of their times. Edward Said has done many of us a favour by
He has included the recent imperialistic attitude of the American which, for instance, resulted in the Iraq War.
The book is excellent. Read it with care. Read it after you finish "Orientalism." Both books demand patience.
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writing this excellent book, which provides us with a different view of the old books. He has included the recent imperialistic attitude of the American which, for instance, resulted in the Iraq War.
The book is excellent. Read it with care. Read it after you finish "Orientalism." Both books demand patience.
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LibraryThing member Kavinay
Subordinating culture is the fruit of imperialist tree.
Subjects
Awards
Lionel Trilling Book Award (1994)