Zitate von Edward W. Said

Edward Said died September 25, 2003 at New York.

... einfach ausgedrückt heißt das, daß man nicht mehr in einem so allgemeinen Sinne von Intellektuellen sprechen kann wie zuvor, da z.B. Habitus und Geschichte der französischen oder der chinesischen Intellektuellen als jeweils ganz verschieden erfahren werden.

Die afrikanischen Intellektuellen beispielsweise oder die arabischen Intellektuellen stehen jeweils in einer ganz besonderen Tradition, mit je eigenen Problemen, Pathologien, Errungenschaften und Interessen.

Doch trotz dieser erheblichen Differenz und Andersheit, trotz der unvermeidlichen Erosion des universalen Begriffs dessen, was es heißt, ein Intellektueller zu sein, scheinen einige allgemeine Vorstellungen über den Intellektuellen - um den es mir hier geht - von mehr als nur lokaler Reichweite zu sein.

Die erste dieser Vorstellungen betrifft die Nationalität und damit auch ihren wuchernden Ableger, den Nationalismus. Kein einziger moderner Intellektueller - ob es sich nun um eine Berühmtheit wie Noam Chomsky oder Bertrand Russel oder um einen minder bekannten Menschen handelt - schreibt auf Esperanto, d.h. in einer Sprache, die der ganzen Welt zugedacht wurde, bzw. keinem bestimmten Land und keiner bestimmten Tradition gehört. Jeder einzelne Intellektuelle wird in eine Sprache hineingeboren und verbringt meist den Rest seines oder ihres Lebens im Bannkreis dieser Sprache, die das elementarste Medium der intellektuellen Tätigkeit ist.

Das eigentliche Problem des Intellektuellen besteht allerdings darin, daß in jeder Gesellschaft bereits eine Sprachgemeinschaft existiert, die von Gewohnheiten des Ausdrucks beherrscht wird, deren zweck es ist, die Dinge leicht, in festgelegten Bahnen und unbefragt funktionieren zu lassen. George Orwell spricht davon in seinem Essay "Politics and the English Language".

Es scheint keinen Weg zu geben, den Grenzen und Einbidnungen zu entkommen, mit denen uns entweder Nationen oder andersartige Gemeinschaften (wie Europa, Afrika, der Westen oder Asien) umgeben, die ebenfalls eine gemeinsame Sprache und eine Vielzahl vorausgesetzter Besonderheiten teilen.

Fesselt das Faktum der Nationalität den einzelnen Intellektuellen aus Gründen der Solidarität, einer ursprünglichen Loyalität oder des nationalen Patriotismus an die öffentliche Stimmung? Oder läßt sich die Rolle des Intellektuellen mit mehr Recht als die eines Dissidenten begreifen?
Niemals Solidarität vor Kritik - so lautet die kurze Antwort.

Nichts ist für Intellektuelle einfacher und populärer, als in Apologie und Selbstgerechtigkeit zu verfallen, die sie blind machen für das Unrecht, das im Namen ihrer eigenen ethnischen oder nationalen Gemeinschaft begangen wurde oder wird.
Obwohl es kaum verläßlichere Mittel gibt, sich unbeliebt zu machen, muß der Intellektuelle seine Stimme gegen das Herdendenken erheben, gleichgültig, was es ihn persönlich kostet.

• Auswahlbibliografie: Edward SAID
• Edward W. Said - selected articles
  
  

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Edward Said
Controversial literary critic and bold advocate of the Palestinian cause in America
Malise Ruthven
Friday September 26, 2003
The Guardian

Edward Said, who has died aged 67, was one of the leading literary critics of the last quarter of the 20th century. As professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, New York, he was widely regarded as the outstanding representative of the post-structuralist left in America. Above all, he was the most articulate and visible advocate of the Palestinian cause in the United States, where it earned him many enemies.

World-renowned scholar Edward Said dies
George Wright and agencies
Thursday September 25, 2003
The Guardian

Edward Said, the world-renowned scholar, writer and critic has died aged 67, it was announced today.
Said died at a New York hospital, his editor Shelly Wanger said. He had suffered from leukaemia since the early 1990s.
He was born in 1935 in Jerusalem - then part of British-ruled Palestine - and raised in Egypt before moving to the United States as a student. He was for many years the leading US advocate for the Palestinian cause.
His writings have been translated into 26 languages and his most influential book, Orientalism (1978), was credited with forcing Westerners to re-examine their perceptions of the Islamic world.
His works cover a plethora of other subjects, from English literature, his academic speciality, to music and culture. His later books include "Musical Elaborations" in 1991, and "Cultural Imperialism" in 1993.
Many of his books - including The Question of Palestine (1979), Covering Islam (1981), After the Last Sky (1986) and Blaming the Victims (1988) - were influenced directly by his involvement with Palestine. He was a prominent member of the Palestinian parliament-in-exile for 14 years before stepping down 1991.

Edward Said: My friend
Edward Said, who died yesterday, was not just a formidable thinker and writer - he was a loyal and thoughtful friend
Ahdaf Soueif
Friday September 26, 2003
The Guardian

It was 12 years ago that Edward called me, early on a summer evening, to tell me he had just been diagnosed with leukemia. There was no hushed tone, no sadness, no fear in his voice. There was surprise and anger. It was "Guess what? I've got fucking leukemia. Apparently I'm dying." I said: "You can't be dying."
At the last two of his public events that I attended with him - one in Brighton, the other in Hay - people were coming up afterwards just to touch him. It was as though he was a talisman. He laughed it off: "You know me, I'm just an old demagogue," he said.
But he wasn't. He was a guide and an example. In the most private conversation, as well as in public, he was always human, always fair, always inclusive. "What is the matter with these people?" he asked after a recent debate. "Why does no one mention truth or justice any more?" He believed that ordinary people, all over the world, still cared about truth and justice. My life and many others' are desolate without him.

My friend Edward
Christopher Hitchens remembers Edward Said, polymath, academic powerhouse, consummate musician and the most passionate advocate of justice for Palestinians
Sunday September 28, 2003
The Observer

The loss of Professor Edward Said, after an arduous battle with a demoralising illness he bore very bravely, will be unbearable for his family, insupportable to his immense circle of friends, upsetting to a vast periphery of readers who one might almost term his diaspora, and depressing to all those who continue hoping for a decent agreement in his Jerusalem birthplace.
To address these wrenching thoughts in reverse order, one could commence by saying quite simply that if Edward's personality had been the human and moral pattern or example, there would be no 'Middle East' problem to begin with. His lovely, intelligent and sensitive memoir, Out of Place, was a witness to the schools and neighbourhoods, in Jerusalem and Cairo, where fraternity between Arabs, Jews, Druse, Armenians and others was a matter of course.

Edward W. Saïd, voix de la cause palestinienne, s'est éteint à New York
LE MONDE.FR | 25.09.03 | 18h34 • MIS A JOUR LE 25.09.03 | 22h22

Auteur de "L'Orientalisme" et de "La Question palestinienne", l'intellectuel et écrivain américano-palestinien a sans relâche défendu l'idée d'un Etat palestinien souverain, critiquant Israël mais aussi la direction palestinienne.
Le célèbre intellectuel Edward W. Saïd, professeur à l'Université Columbia, critique littéraire et principal porte-parole aux Etats-Unis de la cause palestinienne, est mort mercredi 24 septembre, a annoncé jeudi son éditeur, Shelley Wanger. Il avait 67 ans. Il s'est éteint dans un hôpital de New York, victime d'une leucémie chronique lymphoïde dont il souffrait depuis le début des années 1990. L'intellectuel et écrivain était une figure palestinienne reconnue, qui s'était à plusieurs reprises opposé à l'appareil palestinien et particulièrement à Yasser Arafat.
Il naît le 1er novembre 1935 à Jérusalem, fils d'une Palestinienne protestante de famille aisée et d'un riche commerçant palestinien chrétien, devenu américain. Arrivé au Caire avec sa famille en 1947, il part ensuite à 17 ans étudier aux Etats-Unis. D'abord diplômé de Princeton, il obtient ensuite un doctorat en littérature comparée à Harvard. En 1963, il commence à enseigner à l'Université Columbia de New York.
Après la défaite arabe de juin 1967, il s'attèle à la tâche de faire connaître la cause de son peuple aux Etats-Unis. Edward Saïd entre en 1977 au Conseil national palestinien (CNP) et tente en vain de persuader la direction de l'OLP de l'importance de la diaspora palestinienne.
En 1978 paraît L'Orientalisme, son livre le plus connu. Dès 1979, dans La Question palestinienne, il critique la manière dont l'OLP et les pays arabes traitent la question palestinienne. Il a écrit sans relâche sur la cause palestinienne, mais également sur plusieurs autres sujets, de la littérature anglaise, sa spécialité scolaire, à la musique et à la culture. Parmi ses ouvrages les plus célèbres figurent Après le dernier ciel, en 1986, Elaborations musicales, en 1991, et L'Impérialisme culturel, en 1993.

Edward Saïd, le Palestinien de Columbia
LE MONDE | 26.09.03 | 13h24

Mort à New York, Edward Said, américain, grande figure de l'intelligentsia palestinienne, profondément marqué par l'exil, était un homme indépendant, aux identités multiples.
Le visage était hâve. La maladie le rongeait depuis douze ans : leucémie lymphoïde chronique. Mais les yeux disaient encore tout. Vifs ou caressants, observateurs ou lointains. L'homme pouvait être d'une infinie douceur et infiniment cassant. Curieux et attentif, blessant l'instant suivant. La sensibilité à fleur de peau et le port aristocratique. Un homme double, triple, parfois jusqu'au paradoxal.
Cette "polyphonie" constitutive de son identité intime, il la revendiquait. "J'ai l'impression, parfois, d'être un flot de courants multiples. Je préfère cela à l'idée d'un moi solide, identité à laquelle tant d'entre nous accordent tant d'importance", écrivait-il dans son dernier ouvrage : A contre-voie (Le Serpent à plumes, 2002).
Multiple, Edward Said, mort à New York, mercredi 24 septembre à l'âge de 67 ans, l'était parce qu'il était palestinien mais aussi un parfait "cosmopolite", et encore très américain, profondément marqué par la liberté que lui avait offerte l'université aux Etats-Unis. Multiple parce que professeur mondialement reconnu de littérature comparée et aussi musicologue distingué (pianiste de talent, il ne manquait jamais d'envoyer sa critique musicale hebdomadaire à la revue de gauche new-yorkaise The Nation). Multiple parce que pourfendeur inlassable du sionisme et de la politique israélienne, mais presque seul à appeler ses compatriotes à prendre en compte la dimension de la Shoah et à trouver les chemins pour atténuer les peurs des Israéliens. Multiple parce que gloire vivante de l'intelligentsia palestinienne au sein de l'université la plus juive des Etats-Unis, Columbia à New York, où il connaissait certes des ennemis - il ne comptait plus les menaces reçues -, mais aussi bien des amis, juifs pour beaucoup. Multiple encore parce que polémiste engagé, dénonciateur des régimes arabes corrompus et dictatoriaux, mais tout autant de la vision "orientaliste" prédominante en Occident, qu'il assimilait à un succédané sophistiqué de l'ancienne vision coloniale du monde arabo-musulman.

Tribute to Edward Said
Marina Warner
29 - 9 - 2003
Published by openDemocracy

Marina Warner writes from The Italian Academy at Edward Said’s own Columbia University, New York about a great public intellectual and a rare, true friend.

The obituaries, especially in Le Monde and The Guardian, give thorough and appreciative accounts of his life’s work. But The New York Times disgracefully rehearses ancient grudges and slurs, not recognising that the secular polity Edward so fearlessly and honestly struggled for in Israel/Palestine resembles the life of its own polyglot and multi-ethnic Manhattan rather more closely than Sharon’s Israel. This newspaper, in his home town of forty years, managed to be mean-spirited about one of the finest representatives of some ideals of the old United States (now so grievously being flouted): freedom of speech, independence of mind, civil conscience and humanist sympathies across all borders of ethnic and political identity.

Edward Said
Palestinian, intellectual, and fighter, Edward Said rails against Arafat and Sharon to his dying breath
by Robert Fisk; The Independent; September 26, 2003

The last time I saw Edward Said, I asked him to go on living. I knew about his leukaemia. He had often pointed out that he was receiving "state-of-the-art" treatment from a Jewish doctor and - despite all the trash that his enemies threw at him - he always acknowledged the kindness and honour of his Jewish friends, of whom Daniel Barenboim was among the finest.
Edward was dining at a buffet among his family in Beirut, frail but angry at Arafat's latest surrender in Palestine/Israel. And he answered my question like a soldier. "I'm not going to die," he said. "Because so many people want me dead."
On Wednesday night he died in a New York hospital, aged 67.
After Arafat went along with the Oslo accords, Said was the first - rightly - to attack him. Arafat had never seen a Jewish settlement in the occupied territories, he said. There wasn't a single Palestinian lawyer present during the Oslo negotiations. Said was immediately condemned - all of us who said that Oslo would be a catastrophic failure were - as "anti-peace" and, by vicious extension, "pro-terrorist".
Said would weary of the need to repeat the Palestinian story, the importance of denouncing the old lies - one of them, which especially enraged him, was the myth that Arab radio stations had called upon the Palestinian Arabs of 1948 to abandon their homes in the new Israeli state - but he would repeat, over and over again, the importance of re-telling the tale of Palestinian tragedy.
He was abused by anonymous callers, his office was visited by a fire-bomber, and he was libelled many times by Jewish Americans who hated that he, a professor of literature at Columbia University, could so eloquently and vigorously defend his occupied people.
An attempt was made, in his dying days, to deprive him of his academic job by some cruel supporters of Israel who claimed - the same old, mendacious slur - that he was an anti-Semite. Columbia, in a long but slightly ambivalent statement, defended him. When the Jewish head of Harvard expressed his concern about the rise of "anti-Semitism" in the United States - by those who dared to criticise Israel - Said wrote scathingly that a Jewish academic who was head of Harvard "complains about anti-Semitism!"
As his health declined, he was invited to give a lecture in northern England. I can still hear the lady who organised it complaining that he insisted on flying business class. But why not? Was a critically ill man, fighting for his life and his people, not allowed some comfort across the Atlantic? His friendship with the brilliant Barenboim - and their joint support for an Arab-Israeli orchestra that only last month played in Morocco - was proof of his human decency. When Barenboim was refused permission to play in Ramallah, Said rearranged his concert - much to the fury of the Sharon government, for which Said had only contempt.
The last time I saw him, he was exalted with happiness at the marriage of his son to a beautiful young woman. The time I saw him before, he had been moved to infuriation by the failure of Palestinians in Boston to arrange his slides to a lecture on the "right of return" of Palestinians to Palestine in the right order. Like all serious academics, he wanted accuracy. All the greater was his fury when one of his enemies claimed that he was never a true refugee from Palestine because he was in Cairo at the time of the Palestinian dispossession.
He had no truck with sloppy journalism - take a look at Covering Islam, on the reporting of the Iranian revolution - and he had even less patience with American television anchors. "When I went on air," he told me once, "the Israeli consul in New York said I was a terrorist and wanted to kill him. And what did the anchorwoman say to me? 'Mr Said, why do you want to kill the Israeli consul?' How do you reply to such garbage?"
Edward was a rare bird. He was both an icon and an iconoclast.