Edward Said and the Space of Exile

Abstract

In his memoir, Out of Place (1999), Edward Said described the condition of exile as the source of his most deeply held beliefs about himself and the world. His use of exile as a metaphor is in several ways analogous to the ways in which diasporic religious communities orient themselves in relation to space and time. Although Said was critical of the dangerous idea of sacred space, the space of exile is in certain respects similar to a religious myth in its shaping influence on his life, as revealed in his autobiography. The Theme of exile is central in Edward Said's critical and scholarly works. Exile is a political condition that Said shows to be especially painful and unjust in the case of the Palestinian people, whom he described as being in the terrible position of being exiles even while living in their own homeland and, ironically, 'turned into exiles by the proverbial people of exile, the Jews.' In addition to this political meaning, Said frequently used exile as a metaphor to describe his vision of the role of the modem intellectual, who needs a critical, detached perspective from which to examine his culture. Said's 1999 memoir, Out of Place, reveals the autobiographical roots of his interest in exile as both a political condition and a critical concept. The memoir suggests that in spite of Said's principled opposition to religion, his conception of exile is in certain ways similar to the idea of sacred space. The original meaning of exile is banishment, the political action that forces a person to depart from his country. Exile resembles but is not the same as being a refugee, expatriot or member of a diaspora. In practice, however, these terms are now often used interchangeably to refer to people displaced from their original home, even when they leave it willingly. Exile is a way of dwelling in space with a constant awareness that one is not at home. The exile is oriented to a distant place and feels that he does not belong where he lives. Exile is also an orientation to time, a plotting of one's life story around a pivotal event of departure and a present condition of absence from one's native land. An implicit travel narrative is central to the exile's identity; she remembers a difficult journey away from home and looks forward to returning some day. Exile involves orientation, or being pointed toward