Edward Said - Culture & Imperialism

Edward Said, internationally renowned Columbia University professor, practically invented the field of post-colonial studies. His great works Orientalism and Culture & Imperialism have been translated into many languages and is widely used in colleges and universities. The New York Times called him, "one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world." Noam Chomsky said of him, "Much of his immense effort and talent was dedicated to overcoming the insularity, prejudice, self-righteousness, apologetics that are among the pathologies of power and defending the rights of the victims." His two books of interviews with David Barsamian are The Pen & the Sword and Culture & Resistance.

Imperial power is constructed on bedrock not only of force but of culture as well. Culture provides the crucial underpinning, justification and validation of empire. Its crudest manifestation is perhaps Kipling's "white man's burden." Imperialism is often thought of a European phenomenon of the past. In fact it continues today in different shapes and forms. Colonial attitudes are masked in new rhetoric. The U.S. carries out its imperial policies behind the facade of democracy and freedom. Culture and politics produce a system of control that transcends military power to include a hierarchy of representations and images that dominate the imaginations of both the oppressor and the oppressed.