Review article

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM. EDWARD SAID'S CRITICAL VIEWS

Rade Kalanj ; Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb

Abstract

Presented are ideas and views of Edward Said, who dedicated the most of his work to the study of culture and imperialism. He is a prominent comparative analyst of Eastern and Western cultures, and a comparative student of literary and aesthetic processes. However, the focus of his interest are connections between the Western culture and the formation of imperialism. He underlines the fact that evident traces of imperialist logic can be discerned even in great novels, written by Western writers who are usually not ridden with ethnocentrism. So, the Western thought has participated in “cultural construction” of the colonial world even in its most representative aesthetic form (novel), thus influencing the formation of the “cultural periphery”. By uncovering the traces of this intellectual tradition and pointing at their ideological meaning, Said gives his very specific contribution to the theoretical understanding of development and its contradictions.

Keywords

imperialism; culture; comparative method; colonialism; development; “cultural construction”

Hrčak ID:

139510

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/139510

Publication date:

15.1.2001.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

Visits: 3.749 *