Said in Exile - A talk by Timothy Brennan

Professor Timothy Brennan held a hybrid talk about his book, "Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said". Drawing on extensive archival sources and hundreds of interviews, Timothy Brennan's "Places of Mind" is the first comprehensive biography of Edward Said, one of the most controversial and celebrated intellectuals of the 20th century. He taught literature at Columbia University for over four decades. In Brennan's masterful work, Said, the pioneer of post-colonial studies, a tireless champion for his native Palestine, and an erudite literary critic, emerges as a self-doubting, tender, and eloquent advocate of literature's dramatic effects on politics and civic life. Professor Timothy Brennan explored some of the paradoxes of the biography's reception, focusing on two ideas: Said as an Arab, not only American, intellectual; and how his study of literary and cultural theory made his very public and political successes possible. This event was cosponsored by the Center for Palestine Studies and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University.