Edward Said’s metacritical operations

Ways of reading colonial plots

Abstract

The ability of literature to function as the signifier of hegemonic power is undeniable, insofar as it has historically been able to canonize texts that respond to prevailing policies and, in parallel, build reading models that legitimize them. This legitimation is mainly based on the field of literary criticism, which, under academic assumptions, elaborates the production, consumption and analysis devices that contribute to building and disseminating value judgments and perspectives of the world. The article analyzes, on the one hand, how literary criticism cannot be separated from colonial and modern influences, as these have shaped both its interests and its methodologies; on the other hand, and based on these premises, it is proposed to read the work of Edward Said as a metacritical intervention that allows us to re-examine the Eurocentric foundations and the colonial bases of literary criticism.