The reception of Edward Said's work has been extensive and varied enough to provide matter for a book-length study in itself. I cannot possibly deal with every response here, but we can examine crucial and representative reactions to his work, from notable constituencies he addressed or for which his work had implications.

It has been Orientalism which has drawn the greatest attention, from soon after its publication in 1978. As was suggested earlier, it has been Orientalism which has shaped understandings of Said's career, which frequently has been taken as his most definitive statement on the Middle East, on cultural theory, on the academy, on literature. Yet Orientalism was only Said's third book, and now that his career is complete it is useful and important to try to retain an historical sense of the overall trajectory of his writing life. However, we should also note that Orientalism brings together and dramatises many of the most important concerns in Said's work: the canon of high European literature and its links with imperialism; the meanings of humanism and historical interpretation; the production and accumulation of cultural authority; the degradation of knowledge through its relationships with power and institutions; and representations of the Middle East. To this extent, critiques of Orientalism also have ramifications for other parts of his oeuvre. Critiques of Said's work have emerged from those disciplines where his work is felt to have had an influence or where he deliberately intervened.