This book is a continuation of the ideas expounded in Edward Said’s classic work Orientalism.
If in that book the center of attention was the connection between philological research and the formation of the artistic image of the East and the control of European empires over countries in Asia and Africa, Culture and Imperialism expands the geography but refines the focus. Said explores how images of power, the imperial space, and residents of colonies are entwined on the pages of authors such as Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, and François-René de Chateaubriand and also in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida. The second key theme of this book is nationalism and strategies for combating the domination of Europeans, which Said approaches through the analysis of Irish literature. This book, which reveals previously unnoticed details and connections, urges the reader to look again at works they already know.
