Orientalism
The foundational work for Said’s analysis of Orientalism, cultural representation, and imperial power.
Author guide
Edward W. Said Books in Order
Edward Wadie Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935 and educated in the United States, receiving degrees from Princeton and Harvard. He taught at Columbia University from 1963 until his death in 2003, becoming University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. His scholarship joined literary criticism, cultural history, music, politics, and theories of imperialism. Orientalism (1978) transformed the study of Western representations of the Middle East and helped establish postcolonial studies. Alongside his academic work, Said was a major public intellectual and an influential advocate for Palestinian rights and self-determination. He also wrote extensively on music, exile, intellectual responsibility, nationalism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
literary criticismcultural criticismpostcolonial studiespolitical writingmemoirmusic criticismMiddle Eastern studies
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Out of Place: A Memoir
The most accessible entry point to Said’s personal history, exile, identity, and intellectual formation.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (7)
- Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography
nonfiction-book · 1966
- Beginnings: Intention and Method
nonfiction-book · 1975
- Orientalism
nonfiction-book · 1978
Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author discusses Orientalism, defined as the West's patronizing representations of "The East"—the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the…
- The Question of Palestine
nonfiction-book · 1979
This original and deeply provocative book was the first to make Palestine the subject of a serious debate—one that remains as critical as ever. With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential Orientalism and an exile's passion…
- Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World
nonfiction-book · 1981
- After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives
nonfiction-book · 1986
- Freud and the Non-European
nonfiction-book · 2003
Nonfiction (1)
- Out of Place: A Memoir
memoir · 1999
Essays and speeches (15)
- The Palestine Question and the American Context
pamphlet · 1979
- The World, the Text, and the Critic
essay-collection · 1983
Said demonstrates that critical discourse has been strengthened by the writings of Derrida and Foucault and by influences like Marxism, structuralism, linguistics, and psychoanalysis. But, he argues, these forces have compelled literature…
- Peace in the Middle East
pamphlet · 1991
- Musical Elaborations
lecture-book · 1991
Examines the performance of Western high-art music, the politicized theorizing of it, and the use of "melody, solitude, and affirmation" in it.
- Culture and Imperialism
essay-collection · 1993
In a series of essays, Said argues the impact of mainstream culture (mainly British writers of the 19th and early 20th century, like Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling) on colonialism and imperialism, and conversely how imperialism,…
- The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969–1994
essay-collection · 1994
- Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures
lecture-book · 1994
- Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process
essay-collection · 1995
In works such as Culture and Imperialism, Said has compelled us to question our culture's most privileged myths. Now with this impassioned and incisive book, our foremost Palestinian-American intellectual challenges the official version…
- The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After
essay-collection · 2000
- Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
essay-collection · 2000
- Humanism and Democratic Criticism
lecture-book · 2004
- From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map
essay-collection · 2004
- On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain
essay-collection · 2006
In his fascinating last book, Edward Said looks at a selection of essays, poems, novels, films, and operas to determine what late style may explain about the evolution of the creative life. He discusses how the approaching death of an…
- Music at the Limits: Three Decades of Essays and Articles on Music
essay-collection · 2007
Collaborations (2)
- Lebanon: Two Perspectives
co-authored-pamphlet · 1975
- Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society
co-authored-book · 2002
These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues--which grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks--are an exchange between two of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: Daniel Barenboim, internationally renowned…
Frequently asked questions about Edward W. Said
Where and when was Edward W. Said born?
Edward W. Said was born in West Jerusalem, then part of British-ruled Palestine, on November 1, 1935.
Was Edward W. Said Palestinian or American?
He was Palestinian and held U.S. citizenship. His work and public life were deeply connected to Palestinian rights and self-determination.
Source: birzeit.edu (opens in a new tab)
What was Edward W. Said’s academic career?
Said joined Columbia University’s English and Comparative Literature faculty in 1963 and became University Professor in 1992, a position he held until his death in 2003.
What influences shaped Edward W. Said’s thinking?
His thought brought literary criticism into conversation with cultural history, politics, music, imperialism, and Palestinian experience. The 1967 Arab-Israeli war was a major turning point that drew him more fully into public writing on Palestine.
Sources: college.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)palquest.palestine-studies.org (opens in a new tab)
How is Edward W. Said remembered, and what major honor did he receive?
He is remembered as a founder of postcolonial studies and an influential public intellectual whose scholarship continues to shape work on culture, empire, and Palestine. In 2002, he shared the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord with Daniel Barenboim for promoting dialogue and coexistence.
Sources: columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)fpa.es (opens in a new tab)