Nafssiya, or Edward Said's Affective Phenomenology of Racism

This book adapts the Arabic term nafsiyya to trace the phenomenological contours of Edward Saids analysis of the affective dimensions of colonial and imperial racism. Reflecting on what he called his colonial education, Said rendered his Palestinian/Arab background and experience of racism an enabling component of his academic work. The argument focuses on his personal dimension section in his introduction to his famous volume Orientalism, discussing key notions of Saids oeuvresuch as elaboration, circumstance, humanism, worldliness, inventory, and critical consciousness. Providing a lengthy study of his earlier and somewhat neglected Beginnings: Intention and Method, the book discusses the significance of the style of the essay as a key component of what the author calls Saids interventionist brand of scholarship. The final chapter outlines how Saids oeuvre can be situated in a genealogy of a radical phenomenology of racism that emerged from the colonies.