Decontextualized quotations undermine the coherence of a unified Orientalist discourse

Evidence

One may or may not agree with Marx, either in the generality of his theoretical construction or with his interpretation of particular events, but the question about Said’s method remains in any case, as much here as in the case of Dante: if particular representations and discursive statements – if in fact they are discursive statements – can float so easily in and out of various discourses, then in what sense can we designate any one of them a discourse in which the whole history of Western enunciations is so irretrievably trapped? — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 449

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The rhetorical pivot — if quotes float between discourses, no single discourse can claim them — is a genuinely vexing methodological challenge to Said that rewards sustained re-reading.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does Ahmad’s critique here apply equally to the way he himself reads Marx against Said? What would a satisfying reply from Said’s defenders look like?

Related

• Said’s critique reified Orientalism as a category masking deeper structures (similarity 0.83)
• Said’s critique of Orientalism never explained how discourse connects to colonial power (similarity 0.83)
• Said’s critique of Orientalism relies on the same modernist assumptions that produced it (similarity 0.82)
• Said’s critique of Orientalism is inadequate for refashioning the discipline. (similarity 0.82)
• The terms of Orientalism debate have barely changed since Said. (similarity 0.81)
• Said’s method cannot simultaneously hold realist historical grounding and non-mimetic discourse theory (similarity 0.80)
• Said’s critique of Orientalism mirrors the procedures of his adversaries. (similarity 0.80)
• Orientalism’s material effectiveness exceeds what a pure history of ideas captures (similarity 0.80)
• No critique of Orientalism has displaced or surpassed Said’s book (similarity 0.79)
• Orientalism can be pursued as dynamic context rather than inert source-compilation. (similarity 0.79)
• Said borrowed only Foucault’s schematic features, losing his subversive critique (similarity 0.79)
• Orientalist discourse performs its effects where it is deployed, not in the metropole. (similarity 0.79)
• Said’s account makes colonialism an effect of discourse, not material power. (similarity 0.79)
• Orientalism functions as a systemic structure embedded in the modern project (similarity 0.79)
• Said’s Orientalism replaced Marxism with Foucauldian Discourse Theory (similarity 0.79)