Chapter 13 - Can the Cosmopolitan Writer Be Absolved of Racism?

Summary

Aijaz Ahmad’s chapter “Orientalism and After,” collected in his 1992 book In Theory, has proved to be one of the most thorough and lasting critiques of a large span of Edward Said’s work, ranging from The Question of Palestine to Culture and Imperialism. Ahmad’s criticism of Said’s work is informed, incisive and biting, but it is his comments on Said’s literary criticism which suggest that the latter absolved Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster and other cosmopolitan modern writers of racism even as he was critical of so many others. Of course, Said’s work is not racist by association, as most of his writing after Orientalism was directed toward the scrutiny and exposure of racism and colonialism, in canonical literary texts and especially in representations of the Arab and Muslim world.