Although Said's work has been critiqued for denying agency to the Other (the one who is the object of representation, as opposed to the Self who does the representing) and for somewhat reifying Eurocentrism by situating colonialism as a transhistorical and universalizing force, within postcolonial studies Said opened up avenues for thinking about the historical relationship between knowledge and power and about the specific ways in which colonialism sought to produce "truth" and knowledge, and not just ideology, in order to subjugate.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 886