Reflections on exile

With their powerful blend of political and aesthetic concerns, Edward W. Said’s writings have transformed the field of literary studies. This long-awaited collection of literary and cultural essays, the first since Harvard University Press published `The World, the Text, and the Critic’ in 1983, reconfirms what no one can doubt–that Said is an impressive, consequential, and elegant critic of our time–and offers further evidence of how much the fully engaged critical mind can contribute to the reservoir of value, thought, and action essential to our lives and our culture. As in the title essay, the widely admired ‘Reflections on Exile, the fact of his own exile and the fate of the Palestinians have given both form and the force of intimacy to the questions Said has pursued. Taken together, these essays–from the famous to those that will surprise even Said’s most assiduous followers–afford rare insight into the formation of a critic and the development of an intellectual vocation.