Edward Said
1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003
Edward Said was a Palestinian-American literary scholar who taught English and comparative literature at Columbia University from 1963 until his death. His 1978 book Orientalism examined Western scholarly and literary representations of the Middle East and became a foundational text in postcolonial studies. He also wrote on music and on Palestinian politics, and served for a period as a member of the Palestinian National Council.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Edward Said.
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 68 years →
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 68 years →
- Alice Munro (1931–2024) Overlapped 68 years →
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) Overlapped 68 years →
- Arvo Pärt (1935–present) Overlapped 68 years →
- Asha Bhosle (1933–2026) Overlapped 68 years →
Life events
Born to Wadie Said, a businessman with United States citizenship, and Hilda Musa.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe spent much of his childhood in Cairo, attending Victoria College and other schools there.
Took a bachelor's degree after secondary schooling at Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBegan teaching English and comparative literature in New York, where he remained for four decades.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCompleted a dissertation on Joseph Conrad, later published as Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSat as an independent member of the council before resigning in 1991.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe book argued that Western scholarship on the Middle East was shaped by imperial power relations.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe continued teaching and writing after the diagnosis.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgExtended the argument of Orientalism to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century novel and to anti-colonial resistance.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied of complications of leukaemia at the age of 67.
Source: en.wikipedia.org