Edward Said: Debating the Legacy of a Public Intellectual
 |
Edward Said lecturing on Humanism & Knowledge, CRASSH,
Cambridge University, 2002. |
Dates
Wednesday, 14 - 16 March 2006
Program and Abstracts and Report
Conveners
Debjani Ganguly and Ned Curthoys
Sponsored by the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
Under Humanities Research Centre’s annual theme for 2006, “Remembering Lives: Biography, Memory and Commemoration”, we are convening a two-day symposium to discuss the legacy of Edward Said. Our aim is to illuminate the oeuvre of Said from several perspectives. In particular, we are interested in Said’s attempt to revive and inflect the ethos and critical methods of Goethe’s ideal of a ‘world literature’ with a pluralist and inclusive humanism, an ethos of worldly engagement influenced by political exile and émigré experiences. We want to think about the ways in which Said’s hopeful projection of an exilic humanism, partially based on his recuperation of the philologist Eric Auerbach, can converse with postcolonial theory, the transnational scope of comparative literature, and diaspora studies. We also wish to consider Said’s relationship to the politics, historiography, and aesthetics of imperialism, decolonization, and violent anti-colonial resistance. As a conciliatory thinker who mediated between different cultural histories and worldviews – the American and the Arab, the Palestinian and the Israeli – Said was an exemplary public intellectual. The symposium aims to discuss the ways in which the Humanities in the twenty-first century can engage with his legacy, such as his imbrications of culture and imperialism, his cosmopolitan critique of the idea of a ‘clash of civilizations’, and his belief that, in a highly mediated age, the public-intellectual needs to maintain ‘intellectual performances’ on many fronts, keeping in play both the sense of opposition and engaged participation.
Keynote speakers include:
- Professor Lisa Lowe, Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego. Her paper is titled: ‘Saturated With Worldly Concerns’: Colonialism and the Narrative of Universal Freedom
- Professor Saree Makdisi, English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles. He will talk on Edward Said and the Style of the Public Intellectual
- Professor Bill Ashcroft, English, University of Hong Kong. His talk will be about Worldliness and Representation: Said, the Public Intellectual and the New World Order
- A/Professor Ghassan Hage, Anthropology, University of Sydney. His
paper is ttiled: Rationalised Emotions and Emotional Rationality
in Said's Advocacy of the Palestinian cause
Conveners:
| Dr Debjani Ganguly Centre for Cross-Cultural Research The Australian National University Canberra, 0200 Email: Debjani.Ganguly@anu.edu.au |
Dr Ned Curthoys |
For more information on:
| 2006 HRC Theme | 2006 HRC Visiting Fellows |
HRC Enquiries:
Leena Messina, Programs Manager, Humanities Research Centre, ANU.
Email: Leena.Messina@anu.edu.au