Постколоніальний критичний дискурс у праці Е. Саїда «Світ, текст і критик» (POSTCOLONIAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE IN «THE WORLD, THE TEXT, AND THE CRITIC» BY E. SAID)

Abstract

У статті аналізується праця Е. Саїда «Світ, текст і критик» з позиції порівняльного літературознавства, постколоніальної літературної критики та теорії. (In the middle of the XX century the comparative literature studies are characterized by an exploration of the literary theory of postcolonialism and postcolonial literary criticism, that «re-examines» and «re-reads» colonial literature, especially concentrating upon the social discourse, between the colonizer and the colonized, that shaped and produced the literature. Edward Said is considered to be one of the founders of the postcolonial theory. The theory is mainly based on what Said considers the false image of the Orient fabricated by Western thinkers as the primitive «Other» in contrast with the civilized West. His «Orientalism» is the most influential and widely read postcolonial criticism paper containing structural analysis of postcolonial theory. «The World, the Text, and the Critic» is a continuation of «Orientalism», where Edward Said demonstrates that modern critical discourse has been impressively strengthened by the writings of J. Derrida and M. Foucault, and by such influences as Marxism, structuralism, linguistics, and psychoanalysis. He argues, however, that the various methods and schools have had a crippling effect through their tendency to force works of literature to meet the requirements of a theory or system, ignoring the complex affiliations binding the texts to the world. Referring to some works of colonial and postcolonial novelists, Said shows how being free from the repression of imperialism, the natives could, eventually, produce their own literature, build their own image, and write their history outside the frame they have for long been put into. One of Said’s key ideas is that critic must maintain a distance both from critical systems and from the dogmas and orthodoxies of the dominant culture. He advocates freedom of consciousness and responsiveness to history, to the exigencies of the text, to political, social, and human values, to the heterogeneity of human experience. Said argues for an «affiliated» sort of criticism – for accepting literary texts as «dynamic fields». He gives new meaning to the enterprise of criticism in modern society.