Edward Said, the periphery and humanism, or tactics to transcend postmodernism

Abstract

In this article I propose an investigation into the value of humanism in his work, through a journey along certain intellectual routes that lead us to situate it at the antipodes of post-modernism. To this end, I would like to show how in his work we find an intellectual and political paradox that could bear unsuspected fruit in the design of academic and political agendas in countries subjected to colonial experiences, as is the case with Latin Americans. The paradox to which I refer is the coexistence in Said's work of theoretical and political elements that are the foundations of post-modernism together with humanism. Humanism, we know, is the main target of postmodern criticism and the theoretical and political object that postmodernists have set out to destroy.