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Afterword by Jacqueline Rose
Using an impressive array of material from literature, archaeology and social theory, Edward Said explores the profound implications of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism for Middle-East politics today. The resulting book reveals Said’s abiding interest in Freud’s work and its important influence on his own.
He proposes that Freud’s assumption that Moses was an Egyptian undermines any simple ascription of a pure identity, and further that identity itself cannot be thought or worked through without the recognition of the limits inherent in it. Said suggests that such an unresolved, nuanced sense of identity might, if embodied in political reality, have formed, or might still form, the basis for a new understanding between Jews and Palestinians. Instead, Israel’s relentless march towards an exclusively Jewish state denies any sense of a more complex, inclusive past.
“Quite differently from the spirit of Freud’s deliberately provocative reminders that Judaism’s founder was a non-Jew, and that Judaism begins in the realm of Egyptian, non-Jewish monotheism, Israeli legislation countervenes, represses, and even cancels Freud’s carefully maintained opening out of Jewish identity toward its non-Jewish background.“
“I heard … Edward Said give Freud and the Non-European as a lecture at the Freud Museum in London … now it stands in gried and memory of that dear, good and great man as my pre-eminent book of the year.” … Tom Paulin, Guardian, Books of the Year 2003
“His reading of Freud‘s reading of the history of the Jewish people is undeniably brilliant, and persuades the reader yet further that the attempts by the Likudniks and fundamentalist Zionists to harden Judaism into one particular model of Zionism tied to one particular plot of land is both intellectually flawed and a betrayal of Judaism‘s pluralist history.” … Times Literary Supplement
“The voice of the late Edward Said can still be heard in all its trenchant vitality.” … Marina Warner, Irish Times, Books of the Year 2003
“An intriguing critique of Freud’s work that is complemented by Rose’s commentary.” … Multicultural Review
Edward W. Said was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. A member of, among others, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Royal Society of Literature and Kings College Cambridge, his celebrated works include Orientalism, The End of the Peace Process, Power, Politics, and Culture, Blaming the Victims, and the memoir Out of Place.
Cloth: April 2003
Paper: Sept. 2004
96 paqes
Cloth
ISBN-13: 978 1 85984 500 4
£13 / US$19 / CAN$29
Paper
ISBN-13: 978 1 84467 511 1
£8 / US$13 / CAN$19
