06 ISSUE III
FEBRUARY 2025
FEBRUARY 2025
other people’s ideas of yourself
Nearly four decades later, “After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives” is still a blueprint for reclaiming Palestinian narratives from Western stereotypes.
By Atash Nowroozian
In his book, AFTER THE LAST SKY: PALESTINIAN LIVES published for the first time in 1986, the Palestinian writer and academic Edward Said wrote: “Wherever we Palestinians are, we are not in our Palestine.” At the time, Said, one of the world’s leading cultural scholars and critics, was an endowed Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Expanding on his critique in an earlier study, ORIENTALISM (1978), Said examines the West’s construction of the East as the exotic “other” in AFTER THE LAST SKY.
Said offers an intimate reflection on Palestinian identity, exile, and representation. His text – a blend of memoir and political commentary – is paired with the work of Swiss documentary photographer Jean Mohr. Said embarks on a decolonial journey, reclaiming Palestinian narratives from Western stereotypes. “After the Last Sky” is worth revisiting, not only as a challenge to colonialism and Orientalism but also for its nuanced portrayal of ordinary Palestinian life. “We have become the victims of our own representation, trapped in the confines of other people’s ideas of who we are” (140), Said writes.
Through a series of essays interwoven with Mohr’s black-and-white photographs, After the Last Sky offers a fragmented yet deeply personal portrayal of Palestinian life under occupation and in exile. Said structures the book into four sections—“Memories,” “Presence,” “Resistance,” and “Space”—each exploring different aspects of Palestinian identity, history, and displacement. He reflects on the lived experiences of Palestinians, from refugee camps to urban centers, while critiquing the dominant narratives that have shaped their representation in Western discourse. By combining personal reflections, literary analysis, and political critique, Said constructs a counter-history that seeks to reclaim Palestinian self-representation. Mohr’s images capture the dignity of everyday life, requiring textual descriptions to understand their history fully. Said writes, “There are no victims here, just human beings who are neither more nor less than others” (145).
Said’s personal experiences of exile deeply influence the book, adding emotional depth to his political commentary. Born in Jerusalem, raised in Cairo, and later settling in the U.S., Said existed between multiple worlds, never fully belonging to any. This sense of “in-betweenness” echoes the fragmented structure of the book, reflecting on the broader Palestinian experience. He views exile as more than displacement—it is a mindset where the past remains ever-present (81). His reflections highlight the complexity of identity under occupation, shaped by both resistance and resilience. The book’s non-linear structure mirrors the disjointed reality of Palestinian statelessness. Themes of exile, loss, and longing for home permeate the text, reinforcing the tension between belonging and estrangement. Said illustrates how the occupation has shattered any sense of continuity or permanence in the Palestinian consciousness. This disruption is reflected in the very form of the book, embodying the instability of a people whose history is marked by displacement.
When it was first published AFTER THE LAST SKY received critical acclaim for its deeply personal yet politically charged exploration of Palestinian identity. Some praised its evocative prose and Mohr’s striking photographs, while others saw it as a bold intervention in Western narratives about Palestine. The book extended Said’s critique of Orientalism, unsettling dominant representations of Palestinians as mere subjects of conflict. However, it also faced criticism from those resistant to its decolonial stance, illustrating the polarizing nature of Said’s scholarship.
Said’s work emerges from his broader intellectual project analyzing the West’s portrayal of the East as an inferior “other”, designed to legitimize colonial domination. In “Orientalism”, he writes, “The relationship between the Orient and the Occident [the West] is a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony.” AFTER THE LAST SKY reflects on the collective trauma of displacement, challenging colonial distortions of Palestinian life. “Since our history is forbidden, narratives are rare; the story of origins, of home, of nations is underground,” he states at one point, reinforcing the urgency of reclaiming Palestinian voices from the dominant discourse.
Integrating personal stories and reflections, Said rejects homogenized portrayals that have silenced Palestinian voices and denied them agency. Rather than passive victims, he depicts resilient, diverse people shaped by exile and endurance: “Impelled by exile and dislocation, the Palestinians need to carve a path for themselves in existence” (38). An example of this is his depiction of Palestinian workers in the Gulf states, who—despite being geographically distant from their homeland—maintain strong cultural and political ties to Palestine. Their perseverance in unfamiliar environments challenges the Western tendency to portray Palestinians solely through the lens of dispossession and suffering, instead emphasizing their ability to adapt, resist, and create new forms of belonging.
Said examines dislocation through the concepts of al-dakhil (insider) and fil-kharij (outsider), emphasizing the divide between Palestinians in the homeland and the diaspora. He links manfa (exile) and ghurba (estrangement) to decolonization, arguing that Palestinian identity is shaped by the interplay of presence and absence, belonging and displacement. “There is no pure inside, no pure outside; we exist between, always between,” he writes. While alienation defines Palestinian estrangement, sumud (steadfastness) embodies resilience, preserving ties to land, culture, and awdah (return).
Memory and repetition serve as powerful tools in resisting erasure, reinforcing identity amid ongoing exile and loss. Said notes, “To remember is to fight against forgetting, to reclaim what history has tried to erase.” Collective memory withstands colonial attempts at suppression, ensuring Palestinians maintain their sense of self despite repeated displacement. Memory becomes a form of resistance, preserving continuity in the face of dispossession. Said critiques the commodification of Palestinians and their alienation from their own stories. Drawing on Marxist ideals, he describes their reduction to political symbols, stripped of individuality and agency: “We turn ourselves into objects not for sale, but for scrutiny.” This external control over representation reinforces their displacement, reducing Palestinians to constructed identities rather than self-determined individuals.
Women have been underrepresented in Palestinian narratives in multiple ways: their roles in resistance movements are often overshadowed, their contributions to cultural preservation are rarely acknowledged in dominant historical accounts, and their personal experiences of displacement and exile remain underexplored. Said highlights women’s essential role in shaping identity and resistance by highlighting women’s intersectional struggles within colonial oppression. “Unless we are able to perceive at the interior of our life the statements women make… we will never fully understand our experience of dispossession.” Said suggests that fully understanding the Palestinian struggle requires recognizing the experiences and contributions of Arab Palestinian women, who have played a vital role in the preservation of traditions, culture, and the collective memory of the displaced population.
Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories—backed by the U.S.—makes AFTER THE LAST SKY profoundly relevant. Said’s reflections on exile, representation, and resistance help readers grasp the urgency of Palestinian self-determination and the dangers of erasure, demanding justice.
Atash Nowroozian is an MA candidate at The New School, specializing in International Affairs with a concentration in security and conflict, focusing on the MENA region.