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The Legacy of Edward W. Said
From May 21, 2013 until May 28, 2013
On Tuesday, May 28, Casa Árabe is holding a day in which several experts will be reflecting on the intellectual legacy of Edward W. Said and his influence on cultural, post-colonial, Arab and Islamic studies.
The round table discussion, which will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Casa Árabe Auditorium in Madrid (at Calle Alcalá, 62), will include the participation of Patricia Almarcegui, a writer and professor of Comparative Literature; Víctor Pallejà, an expert in Islamic Studies and Arabist from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra; Jordi Àngel Carbonell, an art historian from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, and Eduardo López Busquets, General Director of Casa Árabe.
Free entrance until the event’s capacity is full.
The year 2013 was the tenth anniversary of the death of Edward W. Said (1935-2003). A professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, he coined the term “Orientalism” to refer to the way in which the Arab and Islamic world’s image has been constructed in the Western world. From this arose not only a discipline which required questioning and reviewing the relationship between East and West throughout history, but it also gave rise to well-known cultural and post-colonial studies. With supporters and critics, orientalism continues today to be a cause for controversy. On the occasion of this anniversary, this round table discussion is an attempt to review the discipline on the basis of social events and cultural analyses of the last ten years. Has the way the East is perceived changed now that the Arab revolts have occurred? What would Said have to say about today? Why does criticism of Said originate precisely from the fields of study which he himself produced? Are cultural and post-colonial studies a new form of power?
The participants in the round-table discussion will attempt to reflect upon these matters, with different speeches focusing on three different subject areas: Patricia Almarcegui will be talking about post-Said reflections in the international arena and on the influence of cultural and post-colonial studies. Víctor Pallejà will be analyzing Said’s influence on Arab and Islamic studies in Spain, and Jordi Ángel Carbonell will take a closer look at Said’s postulates regarding Spanish painting, performing a review of the iconographics in Spanish Orientalism.
A writer and professor of Comparative Literature, she has devoted her most recent years of research to Orientalism, a discipline on which she has authored 15 articles, translated into French, Arabic and English, as well as a monographic dedicated to E. Said in Revista de Occidente, issue nº 316, and a book on Ali Bey and European travelers to the Orient. She has been a guess professor, giving conferences and seminars on this topic at the American University of Cairo, the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales of Paris. In 2010, she completed a post-doctoral research stay at the Middle East Institute of Columbia University, invited by E. Said’s intellectual heir, H. Dabashi. Her latest novel is El pintor y la viajera (The Painter and the Traveler, Ediciones B, 2011). She has just won the Fray Luis de León essay competition with the book El sentido del viaje (The Meaning of Travel). She is also a writer for the cultural magazines of Spain’s ABC and La Vanguardia newspapers.
An Arabist and Islamic Studies specialist, he is a professor at the UPF (Barcelona) and specializes in Sufism, medieval philosophy and the history of Orientalism. He has lived in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, in addition to Iran, Turkey and Uzbekistan. He keeps regular contact with traditional and intellectual masters from these countries, performing tasks which include those of researcher, advisor and translator of Arab thought (Las iluminaciones de la Meca [The Enlightenments of Mecca], Siruela, 1996).
A doctor of Art History from the University of Barcelona (1989). Curator of nineteenth-century painting at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (1992-1993). Since 1993, he has been a tenured professor of Art History at the Universidad Rovira i Virgili. He has completed several monographic works on nineteenth-century painting: Francesc Gimeno (Rafols, 1989), Joaquin Vayreda (Ausa, 1994), Ricard Opisso (Fundació Caixa Tarragona, 2001) and Joaquin Vancells (Lunwerg, 2002). Also on nineteenth-century Orientalist painting, he has published the following: Marià Fortuny i la descoberta d’Àfrica. Els dibuixos de la guerra hispanomarroquí (Marià Fortuny and the Discovery of Africa: The drawings from the Spanish-Moroccan War, Columna 1999), Visiones del Magrib en la pintura catalana ochocentista (Visions of the Maghreb in Catalan Nineteenth-century Painting, Lunwerg, 2001), Orientalismo. Al-Maghrib i los pintores del siglo XIX (Orientalism. Al-Maghrib and the Nineteenth-century Painters, Pragma, 2005), La Batalla de Tetuán de Mariano Fortuny. De la trinchera al museo (‘The Battle of Tetouan’ by Mariano Fortuny: From the trenches to the museum, MNAC 2013), and Josep Tapiró, pintor de Tànger (Josep Tapiró, Painter from Tangier, currently being published).
Free entrance until the event’s capacity is full.
The year 2013 was the tenth anniversary of the death of Edward W. Said (1935-2003). A professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, he coined the term “Orientalism” to refer to the way in which the Arab and Islamic world’s image has been constructed in the Western world. From this arose not only a discipline which required questioning and reviewing the relationship between East and West throughout history, but it also gave rise to well-known cultural and post-colonial studies. With supporters and critics, orientalism continues today to be a cause for controversy. On the occasion of this anniversary, this round table discussion is an attempt to review the discipline on the basis of social events and cultural analyses of the last ten years. Has the way the East is perceived changed now that the Arab revolts have occurred? What would Said have to say about today? Why does criticism of Said originate precisely from the fields of study which he himself produced? Are cultural and post-colonial studies a new form of power?
The participants in the round-table discussion will attempt to reflect upon these matters, with different speeches focusing on three different subject areas: Patricia Almarcegui will be talking about post-Said reflections in the international arena and on the influence of cultural and post-colonial studies. Víctor Pallejà will be analyzing Said’s influence on Arab and Islamic studies in Spain, and Jordi Ángel Carbonell will take a closer look at Said’s postulates regarding Spanish painting, performing a review of the iconographics in Spanish Orientalism.
Patricia Almárcegui
A writer and professor of Comparative Literature, she has devoted her most recent years of research to Orientalism, a discipline on which she has authored 15 articles, translated into French, Arabic and English, as well as a monographic dedicated to E. Said in Revista de Occidente, issue nº 316, and a book on Ali Bey and European travelers to the Orient. She has been a guess professor, giving conferences and seminars on this topic at the American University of Cairo, the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales of Paris. In 2010, she completed a post-doctoral research stay at the Middle East Institute of Columbia University, invited by E. Said’s intellectual heir, H. Dabashi. Her latest novel is El pintor y la viajera (The Painter and the Traveler, Ediciones B, 2011). She has just won the Fray Luis de León essay competition with the book El sentido del viaje (The Meaning of Travel). She is also a writer for the cultural magazines of Spain’s ABC and La Vanguardia newspapers.
Víctor Pallejà de Bustinza
An Arabist and Islamic Studies specialist, he is a professor at the UPF (Barcelona) and specializes in Sufism, medieval philosophy and the history of Orientalism. He has lived in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, in addition to Iran, Turkey and Uzbekistan. He keeps regular contact with traditional and intellectual masters from these countries, performing tasks which include those of researcher, advisor and translator of Arab thought (Las iluminaciones de la Meca [The Enlightenments of Mecca], Siruela, 1996).
Jordi Ángel Carbonell
A doctor of Art History from the University of Barcelona (1989). Curator of nineteenth-century painting at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (1992-1993). Since 1993, he has been a tenured professor of Art History at the Universidad Rovira i Virgili. He has completed several monographic works on nineteenth-century painting: Francesc Gimeno (Rafols, 1989), Joaquin Vayreda (Ausa, 1994), Ricard Opisso (Fundació Caixa Tarragona, 2001) and Joaquin Vancells (Lunwerg, 2002). Also on nineteenth-century Orientalist painting, he has published the following: Marià Fortuny i la descoberta d’Àfrica. Els dibuixos de la guerra hispanomarroquí (Marià Fortuny and the Discovery of Africa: The drawings from the Spanish-Moroccan War, Columna 1999), Visiones del Magrib en la pintura catalana ochocentista (Visions of the Maghreb in Catalan Nineteenth-century Painting, Lunwerg, 2001), Orientalismo. Al-Maghrib i los pintores del siglo XIX (Orientalism. Al-Maghrib and the Nineteenth-century Painters, Pragma, 2005), La Batalla de Tetuán de Mariano Fortuny. De la trinchera al museo (‘The Battle of Tetouan’ by Mariano Fortuny: From the trenches to the museum, MNAC 2013), and Josep Tapiró, pintor de Tànger (Josep Tapiró, Painter from Tangier, currently being published).