Beginnings: Intention and Method

Said, Edward W.

ISBN 10: 0465005802 / ISBN 13: 9780465005802

Published by Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1975

About this Item

414 pages, hardcover. Dust jacket has been price clipped and has some mild edge wear, in good condition overall. Tan cloth covers are clean and bright, as are interior pages. Binding is solid. This book is a major event for literary criticism and for humanistic study in general. This work proposes brilliant interpretations of various philosophical works. Clean copy.

Seller Inventory # 34374

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beginnings: Intention and Method
• Publisher: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers
• Publication Date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465005802
• ISBN 13: 9780465005802
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

A "beginning," especially as embodied in much modern thought, is its own method, Edward Said argues in this classic treatise on the role of the intellectual and the goal of criticism. Distinguishing between "origin," which is divine, mythical, and privileged, and "beginning," which is secular and humanly produced, Said traces the ramifications and diverse understandings of the concept of beginning through history. A beginning is a first step in the intentional production of meaning and the production of difference from preexisting traditions. It authorizes subsequent texts -- it both enables them and limits what is acceptable.

Drawing on the insights of Vico, Valery, Nietzsche, Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Husserl, and Foucault, Said recognizes the novel as the major attempt in Western literary culture to give beginnings an authorizing function in experience, art, and knowledge. Scholarship should see itself as a beginning -- as a uniting of theory and practice. Said's insistence on a criticism that is humane and socially responsible is what makes Beginnings a book about much more than writing: it is about imagination and action as well as the constraints on freedom and invention that come from human intention and the method of its fulfillment.

Book Description

This reissued classic traces the ramifications and diverse understandings of the concept of "beginning" in history and offers valuable insights into the role of the intellectual and the goal of criticism.