ABSTRACT
Edward Said is perhaps most familiar to readers as the author of Orientalism (1978) and as a leading exponent of the growing study of post-colonial literatures and cultures. But we can only fully understand this better-known aspect of his work when we grasp his view of the role of the intellectual in contemporary society and the function of criticism itself. Although Orientalism is the book which more than any other has cemented Said’s reputation, it is the collection of theoretical essays, The World, the Text and the Critic (Said 1983), which provides the lens through which his work can be read most profitably, the key to his significance to contemporary cultural theory.
