Just before he died Edward Said published a new editions of ‘Orientalism’, a critique of Western attempts to understand the Near and Middle East in order secure it for western interests. The introduction to the book which was published in part in the Guardian contains something more: a reaffirmation of a ‘humanist’ theory of understanding literature and other cultural artifacts. The claim is that in some sense, citing Goethe, ‘all the literature of the world can be studied as a symphonic whole which could be apprehended theoretically as having preserved the individuality of each work without loosing sight of the whole.
The mode of this apprehension for Said is exemplified by Auerbach’s “Memesis” which he sees as looking back to a period when scholars could intepret texts concretely, sensitively and intuitively on the basis of a knowledge of languages and erudition. Such an understanding was based on positive knowledge of language and history but at its core was ‘sympathetically and subjectively entering in the the life of a written text seen from the perspective of its time and its author’. This involves ...a profound humanistic spirit deployed with generosity. The interpreter’s mind actively makes a place in it for ... ‘works that are otherwise distant and alien’.
‘Humanism is centred upon the agency of human individuality and subjective intuition rather than on received ideas and authority.’
It is interesting to read a month later in the Guardian Terry Egaleton express much the same notion. of feeling ‘your way imaginatively into the experience of another, sharing their delight and sorrow without thinking of oneself’
These notions are close to R.G. Collingwood’s idea of basing interpretations of the past on empathy with the actors and of finding understanding in some common humanity.
The possibility of an intuitive link with the the past or some distant current human way of living is an attractive one. For both Said and Eagleton it is a defence again ulterior motives contaminating the study and communication of the appreciation and understanding. But the problem is surely in the communication. If the scholar achieves such an intuitive understanding, telling others requires some act of ‘translation’ (interpretation is the word used by Said) into terms that can be understood in our here and now in a way that the audience can apprehend what has been intuited.
If it is true that apprehension of the intuition be can be based on our common humanity (diachronically as well a synchronically) the answer may be ‘go and see for yourself’ but then a lot of that positive knowledge of language and history is needed before intuition might kick in.
Intuition seems like meditation or pain. What the suffer apprehends no one else can understand.
AuerbackErich: Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature.
Collingwood R.J: Principles of History and Other Writings on the Philosophy of History.
Eagleton Terry: After Theory
Eagleton Terry
2) Living in A Material World Guardian Review 20 09 03 (not available on the web)
Said Edward: Orientalism
Said Edward (2) "A Window on the World" Guardian Review 02 08 03
Peter's Notes and Commonplaces
