Week 8, Discrepant Experiences, Edward Said (Castle)

Said reveals himself as a leading thinker in postcolonial studies in this article as he communicates foundational concepts such as the importance of moving beyond binary thinking and appreciating “discrepant experiences” and the spectrum of difference and uniqueness found across cultures. He seeks to address the problem of allowing these discrepant experiences to be used “to construct artificial barriers to understanding and to political and cultural understanding” (25). I appreciated Said’s emphasis on a comparative approach which encourages dialogue and found it to be a helpful concept as one begins to understand the primary values undergirding postcolonial discourse.