Given the short duration of the documentary film, only Said’s views could be covered in it, leaving no time for opposing viewpoints offered by such scholars as Scruton. Hence, a careful evaluation of Said’s points and his detractors’ counterpoints should be considered before arriving at an inference. On balance, though, it is perhaps a reflection of the veracity of the book’s claims that thirty years after its publication Edward Said is considered by students of literature, political science, sociology and cultural studies as one of the pioneers of the post-colonial movement in criticism and multiculturalism in politics. The following final words serve as a strong recommendation for the work:
“Its influence has been almost as widespread, not only in English departments across America and Europe but in sociology, anthropology and history. Orientalism has inspired its own academic field, post-colonial studies, which has generated some of the best critical work of the past two decades. It is almost inconceivable to imagine someone receiving a humanities PhD today without having come to terms with Said’s legacy”. (Kabbani, 1994, p.53)
Primary Reference:
On Oreintalism, featuring Edward Said, retrieved from <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCOSkXR_Cw> on 30th November, 2011
Secondary References:
Kabbani, Rana. Imperial Fictions: Europe’s Myths of Orient. London: Pandora Press, 1994 (ISBN 0-04-440911-7).
Little, Douglas. American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945. (2nd ed. 2002 ISBN 1-86064-889-4).
Varisco, Daniel Martin. “Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid.” Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007. (ISBN 978-0-295-98752-1).
Windschuttle, Keith. “Edward Said’s “Orientalism” Revisited.” New Criterion Jan. 1999: 30.