Culture and Imperialism

When Said discusses “canon,” he means the specific set of cultural productions, especially novels, that have been given privileged status within culture. Often this indicates works that emanate solely from the European centers in the West, which have been seen as uniquely positioned to produce “the best that has been known and thought” (xiii). Said’s mission is to expand the canon to include works from writers and scholars working from the formerly colonized margins. The original definition of canon implies sacredness and authenticity, as in the biblical canon. Said emphasizes that post-imperialist culture—and, by extension, canon—is impure and secular.

This is the rhetoric underpinning the imperial project: Imperialism and colonization are necessary endeavors, so that the enlightened European master may impart civilization onto the ignorant, innocent, and barbaric natives. Once the ideology of imperialism becomes embedded within a culture, the “experience in the dominant society comes to depend uncritically on natives and their territories perceived as in need of la mission civilisatrice,” as Said renders it in French (xix). Essentially, the “civilizing mission” functions as a justification for the exercise of power over the colonized natives. Colonizers refer to this as “‘a duty’ to the natives, the requirement in Africa and elsewhere to establish colonies for the ‘benefit’ of the natives” (108), rather than acknowledging the use of force and control.