Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:25:41.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

French-speaking Intellectuals and Culture in Some Key Works of Edward Said

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

Jonathan Locke Hart*
Affiliation:
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, E.J. Pratt Library, Room 301, 71 Queen’s Park Crescent East, TorontoONM5S 1K7Canada. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract

Edward Said, who is a key intellectual figure in the theory and interpretation of western European colonization and decolonization, sees criticism as personal engagement and a matter of character and not simply scholarship. He is highly influential in the fields of colonialism, postcolonialism, representation and interpretation. Of the many influences Said in turn has undergone, those in French deserve specific exploration. This article explores some of these influences, but it also looks at some of Said’s own representations of French and French-speaking culture. To this end I will examine how Said in some of his key works addresses, among other things, the role of the intellectual, Orientalism, colonialism, and literary theory. My approach is chronological. I will first turn to the role the French-speaking world plays in Said’s first published book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966), and then to a couple of Said’s most celebrated works: Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993).

Type
Articles
Copyright
© 2020 Academia Europaea

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Althusser, L (1969) For Marx. Trans. Brewster B. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Auerbach, E (2003 [1953]) Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition. Trans. Trask WR. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bachelard, G (1964) The Poetics of Space. Trans. Jolas M. New York: Orion Press.Google Scholar
Balzac, H de (1950) La Peau de chagrin, vol. 9 (Études philosophiques 1) of La Comedie humaine, cd. Bouteron M. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Barsamian, D and Said, E (2003) Culture and Resistance: Conversations with Edward W. Said. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.Google Scholar
Baudelaire, C (1961) Oeuvres complètes. Ed. rev. Eds. Le Dantec, Y-G and Pichois, C. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Benda, J (1969 [1928]) The Treason of the Intellectuals. Trans. Aldington R. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Brennan, T (2001) Angry beauty and literary love: an orientalism for all time. In Aruri, N and Shuraydi, MA (eds), Revising Culture, Reinventing Peace: The Influence of Edward W. Said. New York: Olive Branch Press, pp. 8699.Google Scholar
Brennan, T (2008) The making of a counter-tradition. In Sökmen, MG and Ertür, B (eds), Waiting for the Barbarians: A Tribute to Edward W. Said. London: Verso, pp. 314.Google Scholar
Césaire, A (1983) The Collected Poetry. Trans. Eshelman C and Smith A. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chateaubriand, F-R de (1969) Oeuvres romanesques et voyages. Ed. Regard, M. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Cheung, K-K (2017) Self-critique prompted by immersion in (an)other culture: Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, Xu Zhimo, and Pearl S. Buck. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 44(3), 607619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifford, J (1980) Orientalism. History & Theory 19(2), 204223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conrad, J (2012 [1897]) An outpost of progress. In Simmons, AH and Stape, JH (eds), Tales of Unrest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7599.Google Scholar
Conrad, J (2010 [1899]) Heart of darkness. In Knowles, O (ed.), Youth: Heart of Darkness: The End of the Tether. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conrad, J (1906) The Mirror of the Sea: Memories and Impressions. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Conrad, J (2013 [1917]) The Shadow-Line: A Confession. Stape, JH and Simmons, AH (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Constant, B (1957) Oeuvres. Roulin, A (ed.). Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
de Beauvoir, S (1944) Pyrrhus et Cinéas. Paris. Gallimard.Google Scholar
de Lesseps, F (1881) Lettres, journal et documents pour servir à l’histoire du Canal de Suez. Paris: Didier.Google Scholar
Dehérain, H (1938) Silvestre de Sacy, ses contemporains et ses disciples. Paris: Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Description de l’Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui on été faites en Égypet pendant l’expédition de l’armée française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l’Empereur Napoléon le Grand, 23 vols. (1809–1828). Paris Imprimerie impériale.Google Scholar
Desjardins, T (1976) Le Martyre du Liban. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
D’haen, T (2017) Worlding comparative literature: beyond postcolonialism. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 44(3), 436448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dugat, G (1868–1870) Histoire des orientalistes de I’Europe du XII’ au XIX’ siècle, 2 vols. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Flaubert, G (1973) Oeuvres complètes de Gustave Flaubert. Paris: Club de I’honnête homme.Google Scholar
Foucault, M (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. Trans. Sheridan Smith AM and Sawyer R. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Sheridan A. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Gordon, C (ed.). New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Fourier, J-B-J (1809) Préface historique,’ Description de l’Égypte, vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie impériale.Google Scholar
Galland, A (1777) Discours. Barthélemy d’Herbelot. Bibliothèque orientale, ou Dictionnaire universel contenant tout ce qui fait connaître les peuples de l’Orient. The Hague: Neaulme & N. van Daalen.Google Scholar
Gérard, R (1963) L’Orient et la pensée romantique allemande. Paris: Didier.Google Scholar
Goldmann, L (1962) Introduction aux premiers écrits de Georges Lukacs. Les Temps modernes, no. 195 (August), 254–280.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A (1971) The Prison Notebooks: Selections. Trans. Hoare Q and Nowell-Smith G. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Hart, J (2001) Representing the New World: English and French Uses of the Example of Spain. New York: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, J (2008) Empires and Colonies. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hart, J (2011) Literature, Theory, History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hugo, V (1964) Oeuvres poétiques. Albouy, P (ed.). Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Irwin, R (2006) For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, A (2004) Geography, spatiality, and racialization: the contribution of Edward Said. The Arab World Geographer 7(1-2), 7990.Google Scholar
Lamartine, A (1887 [1835]) Voyage en Orient. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Le Huenen, R (2017) La Chine et Les Chinois: voyage et paradoxe. Balzac et La Chine/La Chine et Balzac, sous la direction de Véronique Bui et Roland Le Huenen. Mont-Saint-Aignan: Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, pp. 209–216.Google Scholar
Levin, H (1965-85) Correspondence with Edward W. Said, in Correspondence with Harry Levin, Edward W. Said, 1963–1991 and undated, 2 folders, Harry Levin, 1912-1994, Harry Levin papers, 1920–1995. Houghton Library, Harvard, bMS Am2461 (859), especially letters, 5 January 1965; 12 June 1965; and 26 December 1985.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C (1967) The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
López Liquete, M F (2013) Melville and Conrad’s (post)colonial sights of South America: The Encantadas and Nostromo , Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 40(4), 384401.Google Scholar
Lukacs, G (1960a) Histoire et conscience de classe. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Lukacs, G (1960b) La Signification présente du réalisme critique. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Makdisi, S (2008) Edward Said and the style of the public intellectual. Waiting for the Barbarians: A Tribute to Edward W. Said. Sökmen, MG and Ertür, B (eds). London: Verso, pp. 5365.Google Scholar
Marx, J (2017) Orientalisme et sinologie à Paris au début du XIXe siècle: La Chine des Lumières revisitée. Balzac et La Chine/ La Chine et Balzac, sous la direction de Bui V and Le Huenen R. Mont-Saint-Aignan: Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, pp. 21–32.Google Scholar
Marx, K (1852) Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte. First issue of Die Revolution. New York. J. Weydemeyer. [A German magazine.]Google Scholar
Marx, K (2006) The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. No place: Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1346/1346-h/1346-h.htm Google Scholar
Mohl, J (1879–1880) Vingt-sept ans d’histoire des études orientales: rapports faits à la Société asiatique de Paris de 1849 à 1867. 2 vols. Paris: Reinwald.Google Scholar
Napoléon (1843) Campagnes d’Egypte et de Syrie, 1798-1799; Mémoires pour servir l’histoire de Napoléon. Paris: Camau.Google Scholar
Nerval, G de (1960) Les Filles du feu, in Œuvres. Béguin A and Richel J (eds). Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Pirenne, H (1939) Mohammed and Charlemagne. Trans. Miall B. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Poirier, R (1984) Letter from Richard Poirier to Gore Vidal. (Raritan at Rutgers University), 2 February 1984, Gore Vidal, 1925–2012, Gore Vidal Papers, 1875–2008, (bulk), 1936–2000 bMS Am2350 (3978), Houghton Library, Harvard. Said, Edward. Permission to narrate: Ts, 1984. 1 folder.Google Scholar
Prakash, G. (1990) Writing post-orientalist histories of the third world: perspectives from Indian historiography. Comparative Studies in Society and History 32(2), 383408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabelais, F (1894) Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, Book II. In The Works of Rabelais. Derby: Moray Press.Google Scholar
Radhakrishnan, R. (2008) The possibilities of humanism. Waiting for the Barbarians: A Tribute to Edward W. Said. Sökmen, MG and Ertür, B (eds). London: Verso, pp. 431447.Google Scholar
Renan, E (1855) Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques. Première partie, Histoire générale des langues sémitiques. Paris: Impr. Impériale.Google Scholar
Said, E. (1963–1965) Correspondence with Harry Levin, 1963–1991 and undated, 2 folders, Harry Levin, 1912–1994, Harry Levin papers, 1920–1995, Houghton Library, Harvard, bMS Am2461 (859), especially letters, 21 August 1963; 31 August 1963; 4 January 1964; 28 June 1965; 11 October 1965 (including the Guggenheim proposal of 3 pages); 15 October 1965.Google Scholar
Said, E (1966) Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Said, E (1994a [1992]) The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with David Barsamian. Toronto: Between the Lines.Google Scholar
Said, E. (1994b [1993]) Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Said, E. (1996 [1994]) Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. New York, Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Said, E (2000a) Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Said, E (2000b) My encounter with Sartre. London Review of Books, 1 June 2000, 22(11), 1 June, 42–43.Google Scholar
Said, E (2003 [1953]) Introduction. Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition. Trans. Trask WR. Princeton: Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. ix–xxxii.Google Scholar
Said, E (2003 [1978]) Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Said, M (2008) Preface: Edward and Istanbul. Waiting for the Barbarians: A Tribute to Edward W. Said. Sökmen, MG and Ertür, B (eds). London: Verso, pp. ixxi.Google Scholar
Sarraute, N (1956) L’ère du soupçon : essais sur le roman. Paris. Gallimard.Google Scholar
Sarraute, N (1963) The Age of Suspicion: Essays on the Novel. Trans. Jolas M. New York: G. Braziller.Google Scholar
Sartre, J-P (1948) The Emotions: Outline of a Theory. Trans. Frechtman B. New York. Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Sartre, J-P (1963) Preface. Franz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Farrington C. New York: Grove Press, pp. 7–31. [Original; 1961 Préface. Frantz Fanon, Les damnés de la terre. Paris: François Maspero, pp. 9–26].Google Scholar
Sartre, J-P (1977) Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. Trans. Barnes HE. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel.Google Scholar
Schwab, R (1934) Vie d’Anquetil Duperron suivie des usages civils et religieux des Parses par Anquetil-Duperron. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Schwab, R (1950) La Renaissance orientale. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Thiry, J (1973) Bonaparte en Egypte décembre 1797-24 août 1799. Paris: Berger-Levrault.Google Scholar
Tong, QS (2017) Love for the world: Shakespeare, national literature, and Weltliteratur . Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 44(3), 522536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valéry, P (1924) La Crise de l’esprit. In Variété. Paris [Rpt. 1957. Œuvres. Vol. 1. Hytier J (ed.). Paris: Gallimard, pp. 988–1000].Google Scholar
Verlaine, P (1950) Poèmes choisis. Paris: Fernand Hazan.Google Scholar
Volney, C-F (1821) Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie. Paris: Bossange.Google Scholar