Edward Said uses the concept of “contrapuntal reading” to mean looking at a given text in a different way than the standard interpretation. This type of reading often involves taking a different perspective than the author or, in a work of fiction, one or more of the characters.

“Contrapuntal,” the adjectival form of “counterpoint,” draws on that musical technique. It involves a conjunction of voices without an effort to make them harmonize. Rather, each voice is distinct and equally weighted. It is generally associated with postcolonial interpretations of texts written during the age of imperialism or about a Western power in relation to its colonies.

One example from Said’s work is an analysis of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Austen mentions that the Bertrams, an English family, owe their wealth to the income from Caribbean sugar plantations. The lives of the well-to-do English people about whom Austen generally writes are intimately connected with slavery, a fact that largely goes unmentioned in regard to her work.