Beginnings

Beginnings is Edward Said's study of beginning as a method in modern thought. It separates origin, which is divine, mythical, and privileged, from beginning, which is secular and humanly produced. Said traces ideas of beginning through history. A beginning creates meaning and difference from older traditions. It authorizes later texts, enabling them and limiting what is acceptable. The book treats the novel as a Western attempt to give beginnings an authorizing role in experience, art, and knowledge. Said argues scholarship should be a beginning that unites theory and practice, and criticism should be humane and socially responsible.

Why You Should Read?

• Explore how beginning differs from origin in modern thought and human production.
• Discover how a beginning enables later texts while limiting what is acceptable.
• Follow Said's account of the novel as a Western attempt to authorize beginnings in art.
• Understand why scholarship can unite theory and practice as a beginning for humane criticism.