The World, the Text, and the Critic

In this sweeping and rigorous work of literary criticism, he pushes the field even further forward. Moving from Derrida to Foucault, from Marxism to psychoanalysis, and from Swift to Conrad, Said argues that the dogmas of the dominant culture have crippled our engagement with literature, forcing a text to meet the requirements of theory while ignoring the tethers that bind it to the living world. Provocatively, Said advocates for freedom of consciousness and for responsiveness to history; to the exigencies of the text; to political, social, and human values; and to the heterogeneity of human experience. The World, the Text, and the Critic asks daring questions, investigates problems of urgent significance, and gives a subtle yet powerful new meaning to the enterprise of criticism in modern society.