"Post-Orientalism" <Chapter 1: On Exilic Intellectuals> Hamid Dabashi
Reading <Chapter 1: On Exilic Intellectuals> from Hamid Dabashi's "Post-Orientalism," written as the preface to Edward W. Said's "Representations of the Intellectual," reveals that being ironic is an act of <opening>.
According to Dabashi, the core of "Representations of the Intellectual" lies in its third chapter. That is, the assertion that being an exile and a peripheral figure is a condition of the intellectual can be read as being derived from Said's own background as an exile from Palestine to America. At the same time, it is suggested that the state of exile has both a literal meaning and a metaphorical one; Said himself is cited as an example of the former, and Chomsky as an example of the latter. Said proceeds with his argument by drawing greater universality from the former position—his own origin—and by opening his own elements to the latter.
Here, the state of exile as a metaphor refers to the practice of remaining an outsider to society.
In other words, it means never fully conforming, remaining outside the cozy, intimate world consisting of people born in that land, ... not settling down, continuing to move, and being in a state that is always unstable and makes others unstable.
(Representations of the Intellectual, p. 93)
It would seem that being placed in a state of exile naturally puts one in such a condition, but even if that is the case at first, some people may settle down as time passes. Therefore, to dare to have the will to "not settle down." Said states that this is the condition of an intellectual ("It is part of morality not to be at home in one's home" - Adorno).
On the other hand, the following quote can be read as Said's own confession as an actual exile.
Even if you could become a citizen of another country, the awkwardness is impossible to erase, and there are things that are futile no matter how hard you try. So you will continue to regret what you have lost. You envy those around you. They are always comfortable, never leave the places they love, live in the places where they were born and raised, have no experience of losing what they once possessed, and furthermore, are not tormented by memories of a life to which they can never return. However, at the same time, as Rilke once said, as an exile, you can become a beginner in your own environment.
(Representations of the Intellectual, p. 107)
The final twist, "you can become a beginner in your own environment," is developed into the definition in Chapter 4 that "the intellectual is an amateur." Said advocates this stance—which does not succumb to the many evils of modern intellectuals who have fallen into the silos of specialization—as a person who thinks and worries within society without being bound by profit or interest.
By the way, as for Dabashi, he adds a point that Said did not see to the definition of the intellectual as an amateur in a state of exile. He refreshes the way of the intellectual by finding "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (Max Weber) in the anti-intellectual characteristics of (American) intellectuals as they specialize, as follows:
On the other hand, there is something missing in America. It is a culture where being useless or wasteful is paradoxically productive, a culture that counters specialization and resists organizations, and a culture of critical, questioning imagination.
(Post-Orientalism, p. 36)
The irony that favoring waste is "productive" in order to counter the ascetic Protestant ethic that denies "leisure." Opening this irony to the universal, as Said did, is what is required of current (post-)intellectuals.
As for myself, it goes without saying that during the period I moved to Okinawa, I was conditioned to "remain outside the cozy, intimate world consisting of people born in that land, ... and not settle down." Now that I have returned to my hometown of Tokyo, has reality returned to an intimate world? The reality is different. Even though I continue to live in the house where I was born and raised, I am still not at home. That is probably because I experienced "Okinawa." Because "Okinawa" commands, "You have no hometown; do not pretend to settle down." In other words, it means that the memories of my time in Okinawa are erased, and yet I must die once in Tokyo.
"Post-Orientalism"
<Chapter 1: On Exilic Intellectuals>
Author: Hamid Dabashi
Translators: Takanori Hayao, Tetsuya Motohashi, Gui-Yi Hong, Joji Motoyama
Publisher: Sakuhinsha
Publication Date: January 20, 2018
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