Debating Orientalism [Hardcover]

Edward Said continues to fascinate and stir controversy, nowhere more than with his classic work Orientalism. Debating Orientalism brings a rare mix of perspectives to an ongoing polemic. Contributors from a range of disciplines take stock of the book's impact and appraise its significance in contemporary cultural politics and philosophy.1. Orientalism: Legacies of a Performance; Anna Bernard and Ziad Elmarsafy 2. Orientalism's Contribution to World History and Middle Eastern History Thirty-Five Years Later; Peter Gran 3. Flaubert's Camel: Said's Animus; Robert Irwin 4. Said before Said; Donna Landry 5. Orienting America: Sanskrit and Modern Scholarship in the United States, 1836-1894; Rajeshwari Mishka Sinha 6. Re-Arabizing the De-Arabized: The Mista?aravim Unit of the Palmach: Yonatan Mendel 7. Cannibalizing Iraq: Topos of a New Orientalism: Moneera al-Ghadeer 8. Confessions of a Dangerous (Arab) Mind: Orientalism and Confession Beyond Said and Foucault: Andrea Teti 9. The 'War on Terror' and the Backlash against Orientalism: Robert Spencer 10. 'The Defeat of Narrative by Vision': Said and the Image: Nicholas Tromans 11. How Much is Enough Said? Some Gendered Responses to Orientalism: Joanna de Groot 12. Said's Impact: Lessons for Literary Critics: Nicholas Harrison

Debating Orientalism offers a useful balance between the more historiographical and the more theoretical interventions, and gives an excellent sense of the multiple disciplinary frameworks Said's book invokes and incites. The chapters talk back to each other in intriguing ways, indeed at points argue categorically against each other, giving a sense of immediacy and debate. - Dr. Alex Padamsee, University of Kent, UK