Theory is taught so as to make the student believe that he or she can become a Marxist, a feminist, an Afrocentrist, or a deconstructionist with about the same effort and commitment required in choosing items from a menu.
Interpretation
The quote critiques how theories are taught, suggesting they are simplified to the point of being a mere choice rather than a serious commitment.
Edward Said's quote reflects on the prevalent educational practice where complex ideologies like Marxism, feminism, and Afrocentrism are presented to students as easily selectable options, akin to choosing items from a menu. This approach undermines the depth and complexity of these theories, implying that a superficial commitment is sufficient to identify with them, rather than recognizing the engaged learning and serious consideration these ideologies require. It challenges educators to ensure that the teaching of theories fosters deep understanding rather than mere surface-level acceptance.
In practice
In a lecture on critical theory, one might quote Said to emphasize the need for deeper engagement.
All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Refuse to allow yourself to become a vegetable that simply absorbs information, pre-packaged, pre-ideologized , because no message.. is anything but an ideological package that has gone through a kind of processing.
Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.
Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
Feeling gratitude isn't born in us-it's something we are taught, and in turn, we teach our children.
Northwestern's alumni list is truly impressive. This university has graduated best-selling authors, Olympians, presidential candidates, Grammy winners, Peabody winners, Emmy winners, and that's just me!
An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 or 50 pages.
Good books are for consideration after, too.
When I was 11, I knew that I wanted to write a kid's book and tell the world what it was like being deaf.
Sadly, there are many children who have not yet been given the chance to 'discover the magic of reading, or set foot in the worlds you can discover on bookshelves.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.