The Politics of the Margin and the Centre: Re-reading Edward Said

Authors

  • Kishan Thingbaijam Dept. of Commonwealth Literature, The EFL University, Hyderabad

Keywords:

Marginality, Postcolonial, Displacement

Abstract

The paper attempts to locate Edward Said’s understanding of the margin and the centre through his own condition of displacement. The paper introduces many of his concepts, and argues that these concepts revolve around the notion of the margin and the center as perceived and understood by Said. His idea of the state of marginality is singular as it brings forth certain positive element in it. For him, marginality can gather strength and instill a new insight to an observer. By redefining marginality, he subverts the traditionally held notion about it. His works provide vital insights to many postcolonial interrogations, and he remains one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

References

Ashcroft, Bill, Pal Ahluwalia. Edward Said: The Paradox of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.

Bayoumi, Moustafa, Andrew Pubin. The Edward Said Reader. New York: Vintage Books, 2000. Print.

Cooper, John Xiros. The Cambridge Introduction to T.S. Eliot. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.

Farah, Nuruddin. “In Praise of Exile”. Literature in Exile. John Glad. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990. Print.

Said, Edward. Out of Place: A Memoir. New Delhi: Penguin Books.1999. Print.

Reflections on Exile and Other Literary and Cultural Essays. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2001. Print.

Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. London: Vintage Books,1994. Print.

The World, the Text and the Critic. London: Vintage Books, 1983. Print.

Singh, Gurbhagat. “Expatriate Writing and the Problematic of Centre: Edward Said and Homi Bhabha” Writers of Indian Diaspora: Theory and Practice. Ed. Jasbir Jain. Jaipur: Rawat Publication, 1998. Print.

Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. “The Politics and Poetics of Exile: Edward Said in Africa”. Research in African Literatures 36.3 (2005): 1-22. Print.

“The Tribulations of Undressing the Emperor”. Canadian Journal of African Studies 28.1 (1994): 106-120. Print.

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Published

01.07.2012

How to Cite

Kishan Thingbaijam. (2012). The Politics of the Margin and the Centre: Re-reading Edward Said. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 4(1), 40–48. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL040107

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2012): July

Section

Research Articles

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