NEW YORK -- "Contrapuntal reading," as Edward Said called it, is the ability to read between the lines. The reader must be able to have what is referred to, but not described, play off the main descriptive concern. This ability is particularly important with novels written while empire-building was in full force or possessing colonies was the norm, Said argued.
For him, "the perfect example" was "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen (1775-1817). It is not enough to savor "the poise and the beauty of Mansfield Park" as domestic love complications ripple through it. You must also conjure up the horrors of slavery on a sugar plantation in Antigua, which Sir Thomas, the master of the Bertram household, owns and which makes the "particular style of life in England" described in the novel possible.
It is easy to see how the idea of "contrapuntal reading" stoked the imagination of those engaged in literary criticism when it was fully presented back in 1978 or so -- when Said published "Orientalism." A literary approach enunciated as a matter of global polemics, it obviously had a strong appeal.