A Good Old-Fashioned Take Down

If you want to read a blistering take on Edward Said's concept of Orientalism (and you know you do) I would highly recommend this Robert Irwin essay from the latest Times Literary Supplement. While presenting an effective review of two books (themselves damning) on Said and Orientalism, Irwin uses his material as a justification to let loose. here is the first paragraph:

So many academics want the arguments presented in Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) to be true. It encourages the reading of novels at an oblique angle in order to discover hidden colonialist subtexts. It promotes a hypercritical version of British and, more generally, of Western achievements. It discourages any kind of critical approach to Islam in Middle Eastern studies. Above all, Orientalism licenses those academics who are so minded to think of their research and teaching as political activities. The drudgery of teaching is thus transformed into something much more exciting, namely “speaking truth to power”.

Irwin doesn't pull punches as the essay progresses. Between his observations and the apparently critiques of Said from the books in question Said's vision of Orientalism emerges battered beyond redemption.