Drawing on extensive archival sources and hundreds of interviews, Timothy Brennan's Places of Mind is the first comprehensive biography of Said, one of the most controversial and celebrated intellectuals of the 20th century. In Brennan's masterful work, Said, the pioneer of post-colonial studies, a tireless champion for his native Palestine, and an erudite literary critic, emerges as a self-doubting, tender, and eloquent advocate of literature's dramatic effects on politics and civic life. Places of the Mind charts the intertwined routes of Said's intellectual development, revealing him as a study in opposites: a cajoler and strategist, a New York intellectual with a foot in Beirut, an orchestra impresario in Weimar and Ramallah, a raconteur on national television, a Palestinian negotiator at the State
Brennan traces the Arab influences of Said's thinking along with his
tutelage under Lebanese statesmen, off-beat modernist auteurs, and New
York literati, as Said grew into a scholar whose influential writings
changed the face of university life forever. With both intimidating
brilliance and charm, Said turned these resources into a groundbreaking
counter-tradition of radical humanism, set against the backdrop of
techno-scientific dominance and religious war. With unparalleled
clarity, Said gave the humanities a new authority in the age of
Reaganism that continues today.
Drawing on the testimonies of
family, friends, students, and antagonists alike, and aided by FBI
files, unpublished writing, and Said's drafts of novels and personal
letters, Places of the Mind captures Said's intellectual breadth and
influence in an unprecedented, intimate, and compelling portrait of one
of the great minds of the twentieth century. Hardback.
Places of Mind : A Life of Edward Said - Timothy Brennan
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£19.99