A
Palestinian American literary critic who links
literature to
social and
political thinking.
Said has written many books analyzing the cultural myopias in classic literature and many defending the idea of an independent state for Palestinian
people.
His most famous book is Orientalism which is a study and criticism of the Westernization of scholarship about the Far East and Islamic culture. It is a powerful argument for the implementation of a real multiculturalism in academia. If the academics can't get it right what do we expect from middle America?
Studying sociology I see him quoted nearly as much as bell hooks and I think that his work is finally getting the attention that it warrants.
His most recent book was Culture and Imperialism .