Edward Said and the Avant-Garde

This article examines the interconnections between Said’s critical oeuvre and a range of theoretical positions apropos of the European and American Avant-gardes. Questions raised in this article pertain to the critical deconstruction of generic distinctions between the work of art and the work of the critic; the role of the Avant-garde in identifying and critically subverting the institutional basis of aesthetic discourse; the ironic antagonisms between Said’s discursive projects and the critical “heritage” of the Avant-garde. In light of the latter’s proto-critical maneuvers in a variety of media (plastic, literary, musical), Said’s work can be seen as expanding, enriching, and radically accelerating certain avant-garde initiatives, though he often subverts them in turn, conspicuously in respect of their postmodern inflections.