Edward Said, Cultural Politics, And Critical Theory (An Interview)‪.‬

FERIAL GHAZOUL: At what point in your academic career did you know Edward Said and how was your response on first reading him or meeting him? How did your response to Said develop? TERRY EAGLETON: My first encounter with Edward Said was when he wrote to congratulate me on my book Marxism and Literary Criticism, which must have been in 1976. I read Beginnings as soon as it was published, and then in 1978 the year of Orientalism--I was invited by Fred Jameson to speak at Yale; he and I having taught together a couple of years earlier in California. On the way home, I stopped off at Columbia and spoke to a seminar Said was running; I can't remember what about. So this was our first meeting in person. I remember I had my eldest son with me, who was nine years old at the time, and having heard that Said was an Arab, he was very disappointed on meeting him that he wasn't accompanied by a camel and wasn't wearing a head-dress. (My son is now a Thai-speaking famine researcher with a well-known relief organisation, so perhaps he knows a bit better). Said and I then met on several occasions over the years, mostly in London, Oxford, and Dublin. A few years before he died I dedicated one of my books to him, and he responded with a typically warm-hearted letter of thanks. That was the last contact we had.