The Contrapuntal Humanisms of Edward Said

In Culture and Imperialism Said proposes (and discusses elsewhere) counterpoint in music as a model for a different kind of critical reading. The article examines ambiguities in his concepts of counterpoint and provides a study of ways in which Said's ideas about counterpoint in music bear on his somewhat problematic discussions of a humanism critical of humanism in his final book project, Humanism and Democratic Criticism.