Description
“On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain” fills a gap in Edward Said’s Arabic-language library. Here, the author of “Orientalism,” “Culture and Imperialism,” and “Out of Place” reveals his other, more prominent side: that of a literary, musical, and cultural critic.
Edward died before he could put the final touches on this book, which deals with cultural producers in the final stages of their lives, who defied the onslaught of death by going “against the grain” in both content and form. In literature, there are Jean Genet, Cavafy, Lampedusa, and Thomas Mann; in musical composition, there are Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and the prodigious musician Glenn Gould; in addition to opera, Greek theater, and Visconti’s films; and always creatively inspired by the critical works of Adorno and Gramsci.
“On Late Style” is also Edward Said’s “late” work, in which he himself goes “against the grain” in terms of his radical outlook, tone, and concepts, delivering criticism in a style that has reached the highest levels of craftsmanship and elegance. Hence, the production of “On Late Style” in Arabic goes beyond introducing a masterpiece of literary and musical criticism to disseminating Edward Said’s intellectual and literary legacy.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.