Culture and Imperialism [Paperback]

A landmark work from the author ofOrientalismthat 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 fromMansfield ParktoHeart of DarknessandAida.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 Imperialismreopens the dialogue between literature and the life of its time. Grandly conceived . . . urgently written and urgently needed. . . . No one studying the relations between the metropolitan West and the decolonizing world can ignore Mr. Said's work.' --The New York Times Book Review

Culture and Imperialismhas an eloquent, urgent topicality rare in books by literary critics. . . . Said is a brilliant and unique amalgam of scholar, aesthete, and political activist. . . . His learning is global. --Washington Post Book World

Rough-and-ready scholarship from today's street fight in the humanities. . . . Said reads passionately and bravely. . . . He challenges everyone to read fiction in the most comprehensive manner possible. --Philadelphia Inquirer

Readers accustomed to the precision and elegance of Edward Said's analytical prowess will not be disappointed byCulture and Imperialism. Those discovering Said for the first time will be profoundly impressed. --Toni Morrison

InCulture and Imperialism,Edward Said's immense erudition and interpretive audacity are brought to bear on a variety of literatures, relsj