ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1989, when the intifada was at its height, Professor Alexander Edward Said, who holds an endowed chair in English and comparative literature at Columbia University. The extent to which Edward Said appealed to the political urges of countless professors of literature and language became fully evident when, in 1996, they elected Said as second vice president of the Modern Language Association (MLA). The MLA is the major professional organization in the country (and has members in ninety-nine others) of college teachers of English and foreign languages. Louis Kampf appealed to the fantasies of countless professors about revolution through the English departments. Although no subsequent president of the MLA rivalled Kampf for boorishness (or humorlessness), he had succeeded in putting his stamp on the organization. Some MLA members who still believed in the integrity, autonomy, and intrinsic value of literature resigned from the organization.
