Nafssiya, or Edward Said's Affective Phenomenology of Racism

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-3-031-51771-6
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Buch, Englisch, 199 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 281 g

This book adapts the Arabic term nafsiyya to trace the phenomenological contours of Edward Said’s 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 Said’s oeuvre—such 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 Said’s interventionist brand of scholarship. The final chapter outlines how Said’s oeuvre can be situated in a genealogy of a radical phenomenology of racism that emerged from the colonies.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nikro, Norman Saadi

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziale Ungleichheit, Armut, Rassismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Phänomenologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Strange Disjunction.- Chapter 2. Inventorying the Self: Nafssiya, Elaboration, Recursive Humanism.- Chapter 3. Archival Repositories, Embodied Repertoires, Marxism.- Chapter 4. Beginnings: Said’s Interventionist Scholarship.- Chapter 5. Giving an Account of Himself.- Chapter 6. Towards a Phenomenology of Racism.

Über Autor(innen)

Norman Saadi Nikro is a research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient. Having Australian and Lebanese backgrounds, he served as an Australian Volunteer Abroad in Ramallah, and was later an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, before moving to Berlin.