Edward Said: Places of Mind, Occupied Lands

Edward Said’s fame belies the fact that his work has frequently been poorly understood. Brennan’s intellectual biography, authorized by the author’s Estate, will not only trace Said’s influences and output during each era of his life, and illuminate his relationship with those thinkers essential to his philosophical formation: Vico, Gramsci, Auerbach, Gould, Lukacs, Adorno, Conrad. Brennan will explore Said’s opposition to scientism, an empirical approach that pervades cultural and political thought even today. He will also argue for Said’s ‘paradoxical Americanness’ in taking ownership of dual identities as a Palestinian and a New Yorker. In a world of sectarian conflict, Said championed the importance of contradictions and resolutions equally, reaching for new and different ways to conceive of human relationships.

Edward Said served as Timothy Brennan’s dissertation advisor at Columbia University and the two men remained close until Said’s death in 2003. Ultimately, this book will deepen our understanding of Said’s legacy, and further solidify the authority of literature and the humanities, which Said repositioned ‘at the heart of American political debate.’