Madam, - The obituary of Edward W. Said in your edition of September 27th was disappointing. It paid scant attention to the importance of Prof Said as a literary and cultural critic. While it rightly praised his advocacy of the Palestinian cause, the attention to his literary and cultural work amounted to two brief paragraphs that presented only standard criticisms of his best-known book, Orientalism.
The obituary was ungenerous to Prof Said's scholarship, and was surprising from an Irish newspaper. He had an abiding interest in Ireland and his work has deeply influenced Irish literary and cultural studies since the 1980s. His influence may be controversial and his insights vigorously contested, but he was a man of great importance in the Irish academy.
Prof Said's lifelong commitment to writing about, and teaching, both Irish and other literatures deserves greater attention in your pages. - Yours, etc.,
CÓILÍN PARSONS, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York, USA.