Edward Said

Ashcroft and Ahluwalia provide a straightforward and readable outline of Said's work. Although concise, their approach is comprehensive and examines Said's many works. They also show how Said's cultural location and his activism greatly influenced his theories and methodologies. Altogether, a great introduction to a complex subject.

The Routledge text on Edward Said, by Bill Ashcroft and Pal Ahluwalia, is part of a recent series put out by the Routledge Press, designed under the general editorial direction of Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway, University of London), to explore the most recent and exciting ideas in intellectual development during the past century or so. To this end, figures such as Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Ricoeur, Sigmund Freud and other influential thinkers in critical thought are highlighted in the series, planned to include at least 21 volumes in all.Ashcroft and Ahluwalia's text, following the pattern of the others, includes background information on Said and his significance, the key ideas and sources, and Said's continuing impact on other thinkers. As the series preface indicates, no critical thinker arises in a vacuum, so the context, influences and broader cultural environment are all important as a part of the study, something with which Said might agree.Why is Said included in this series? his thought and intellectual influence has extended far beyond to almost every academic field. Particularly in the areas of philosophy, politics, theology, and sociology, Said's influence will continue to be significant for a number of reasons.Ashcroft and Ahluwalia's text is well organised. In the first chapter, she recounts both a brief biographical sketch of Said, as well as the discussion on how Said's development of ideas impacts the intellectual development of the twentieth century. Said was set to be a relatively intelligent but unknown professor of comparative literature when events in the Middle East, and his own multifaceted identity, propelled him into other arenas. His identity as an American in New York City (a city not unknown for diversity) was challenged as his identification as an Arab seemed to take precedence in light of the Arab/Israeli conflicts - an identity problem that has re-established itself for many in the wake of the post-9/11 bombings. Understanding the importance of culture and its pervasive power through the texts, the writers, the readers, and the understandings of people even without their awareness is crucial to understanding the world, particularly in the increasingly globalised culture.One of the useful features of the text is the side-bar boxes inserted at various points. For example, during the discussion on Said's development of orientalism, there are brief discussions, set apart from the primary strand of the text, on the Epistemology, Ontology, Michel Foucault, and Marxism, developing further these topics should the reader not be familiar with them, or at least not in the way with which Said would be working with ideas derived from them. Each section on a key idea spans twenty to thirty pages, with a two-page summary concluding each, which gives a recap of the ideas (and provides a handy reference).The book is designed so that each chapter can be a stand-alone essay, peripherally rel