Humanism in Edward Said's ‘Late Style’

Abstract

This thesis aims at proving that Edward W. Said is at odds not only with his time but with himself as well, in his turning to humanism. Said is well known as a post-colonial theorist, in the post-modernist era, which is an era of conflict, fragmentation, claiming objectivity,which not only opposes humanism but also considers it a kind of anachronism or history-bound category.Said borrows a term from Theodor Adorno, and applies it tomany intellectuals. This term is called 'Late Style,' which contains the idea of contradiction, in which the artist contradicts not only himself but his time as well. In this thesis I apply the term 'late Style', based on Edward Said’s interpretation of the term, to Edward Said himself to reveal the contradiction in what Said had earlier pointed out and wrote about. The thesis is divided into three chapters as follows: Chapter One This chapter consists of two parts: part one is entitled: Humanism: A Historical Survey. In part two 'Late Style' I display two conceptions of 'late style'. The first one is Theodor Adorno's 'late style', and the second is Said's. Chapter Two This chapter is devoted to Edward Said as an entrance in which notions like paradox of identity, worldliness, and secular criticism are discussed in an attempt to understand Said's turning to humanism and the implied contradiction of this turning.