Abstract:Edward Said's commitment to humanism remains one of the most puzzling aspects of his scholarship, particularly in postcolonial circles and in light of his reliance on anti-humanist Michel Foucault. In...Edward Said's commitment to humanism remains one of the most puzzling aspects of his scholarship, particularly in postcolonial circles and in light of his reliance on anti-humanist Michel Foucault. In his last years, Said dedicated his energies toward defending humanism, a system that had fallen out of favor at the time of post-humanism, and in the wake of the anti-humanism of the 1960s and 1970s. This chapter examines Said's writing on humanism, arguing that Said develops his alternative, critical humanism out of Aimé Césaire's critique of a certain kind of humanism but not all humanisms, before moving on to establish the difference between Said's Césairian humanism and later modes, including Fanon's ethical anti-humanism and the anti-humanism that gained popularity thereafter. Said develops his critical humanism out of Césaire's fledgling "alter-humanism" because of its positioning as an alternative to traditional, Eurocentric humanism and, as such, Said's commitment to humanism does not appear as contradictory to the rest of his scholarship as has been argued elsewhere.Read More
Publication Year: 2022
Publication Date: 2022-02-21
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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