Book Description:
In the radically changed political atmosphere that has overtaken the United States and to varying degrees the rest of the world since September 11, 2001, the notion that cultures can harmoniously and fruitfully coexist seems like little more than a quaint fiction. In this time of heightened animosity and aggression, have humanistic values and democratic principles become irrelevant? Are they merely utopian fantasies?
Ever since the ascendancy of critical theory and multicultural studies in the 1960s and 1970s, traditional humanistic education has been under assault. Often seen as the intolerant voice of the masculine establishment and regularly associated with Eurocentrism and even imperialism, the once sacred literary cannon is now as likely to be ridiculed as revered. While this seismic shift, brought on by advances in technological communication, intellectual specialization, and cultural sensitivity, has eroded the primacy of classical studies, Edward Said argues that a more democratic form of humanism one that aims to incorporate, emancipate, and enlighten is still possible.
Proposing a return to philology and an enhanced dialogue between cultural traditions as a strategy for revitalizing the humanities, Said contends that words are vital agents of historical and political change and that reading teaches people to continually question, upset, and reform. Intellectuals must reclaim an active role in public life, but at the same time the academic trend toward needless jargon and obscurantism must be combated, as must the dismissive, exclusionary forms of humanism exemplified by Allan Bloom, Harold Bloom, and Samuel Huntington. By considering the emerging social responsibilities of writers and intellectuals in an ever more interconnected world and pointing out that the canonized thinkers of today were yesterday's revolutionaries, Said makes a persuasive case for humanistic education and a more democratic form of intellectual criticism.
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