Edward Said and the Politics of Humanism

ABSTRACT: Edward Said contributed immensely to the debate around the role of intellectuals in the Public Sphere. Through his scholarly work and political activism, he shows a consistent commitment to the tradition of humanism. One may venture to say that his political intervention in the struggle for Palestinians rights and freedom can be regarded as a politics of humanism. What makes Said so exceptional in his contribution? Why is he still, years after his departure, an inspirational public intellectual? To answer these questions, one is compelled to delve into the humanistic approach with which he conducted his work and the very notion of representation he adopts apropos universal causes of justice, freedom and democracy. It seems untenable in the case of Said to extricate the scholarly intellectual from the political or the humanistic. In this paper, I argue that Said‟s politics for Palestine demarcate the trajectory of his humanistic scholarly project, and this can be put fairly under the rubric of “Politics of Humanism”. His commitment to aestheticism is impressive, he draws our attention to the significance of the philological reading and humanistic interpretation of knowledge. The approach he magnificently celebrated throughout his scholarly and political writing. Therefore, engaging with Said‟s work certainly illuminates us to see how he was able to use the scholarly tools of criticism to provide the readers with new ways to perceive reading and learning critically and use it as a tool of resistance to official narratives. One may argue that Said thrives to address the humanistic role of the intellectual in the public sphere through political intervention in three dimensions. One, through presenting the alternative narrative; two, through providing ardent critique of those who are in power and their circles of intellectuals; and three, through offering a vision for the future epitomised in a message of coexistence and shared experiences and histories.
KEYWORDS: Palestinians, Humanism, Politics, Criticism, Philological Reading, Intellectuals