Antithetical scholars replace methodological silence with politicized explicitness
Evidence
By antithetical knowledge I mean the kind of knowledge produced by people who quite consciously consider themselves to be writing in opposition to the prevailing orthodoxy. As we shall see, they do so for varying reasons and in different situations, but all of these people have a pronounced sense that how and for what reason they study Islam are questions that require deliberation and explicitness. In these antithetical interpreters, the methodological silence of Orientalism, which has usually been overlaid by layers of optimistic confidence in value-free objectivity, is replaced by urgent discussion of the political meanings of scholarship. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 341
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the chapter’s key term ‘antithetical knowledge’ and contrasts it with orthodox coverage.
- XREF: connects to: The Institute suppressed overt politics in favor of indirect critical presentation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 539; Fringe believers conflate institutional silence with outright rejection of their claims — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 167