Arab Representations of the Occident: East-West Encounters in Arabic Fiction

272 Pages·2006·1.03 MB·English

by  Rasheed El-Enany

Arab Representations of
the Occident
This book explores Arab responses to Western culture and values as expressed
through works of fiction and non-fiction written by Arab authors during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It constitutes an original addition to the
perennial East–West debate, and is particularly relevant to the current discussion
on Islam and the West.
Arab Representations of the Occident might be seen as the reverse study of
Edward Said’s famous Orientalism. If Orientalism, according to Said, provided
the conceptual framework, the intellectual justification for the appropriation of
the Orient through colonialism, ‘Occidentalism’– if one may use this label to
indicate Arab conceptualisations of the West – tells a different story. It is a story,
not about the appropriation of the land of the West, but its very soul. And if
Orientalism was about the denigration, and the subjugation of the Oriental Other,
much of Occidentalism has been about the idealisation of the Western Other, the
desire to become the Other, or at least to become like the Other. This book – the
first book on the subject in English – explores this process through examining
representations of the West, or of the self and other in Arabic fictive and quasi-fictive
writing.
Rasheed El-Enany, Professor of Modern Arabic literature at the University of
Exeter, researches into all genres and aspects of modern Arabic literature: fiction,
drama, poetry, as well as literary criticism. He is interested particularly in the
study of literature as a system of thought with an attitude towards the
philosophical and socio-political issues of human life.
He has written extensively on the Arabic language’s leading novelist and Nobel
laureate, Naguib Mahfouz. His previous publications include: Naguib Mahfouz:
the Pursuit of Meaning (also published by Routledge) and a translation of
Mahfouz’s novel, Respected Sir.
Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
Series Editor: Ian R. Netton
University of Leeds
This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures
and civilisations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys,
it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law,
history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture and language. While there
is a plurality of views, the series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and
stimulating fashion.
Arab Representations of
the Occident
East–West encounters in
Arabic fiction
Rasheed El-Enany
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2006 Rasheed El-Enany
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0–415–33217–6
ISBN13: 978–0–415–33217–0
Foreign culture is as necessary to the spirit of a nation as is foreign commerce to its
industries.
(Lebanese/American writer, Ameen Rihani, 1876–1940)
We came to Europe
To drink of the springs of civilisation;
We came looking for a northerly window;
We came to breathe in the air;
To know the colours of the sky;
We came running away from the whips of oppression;
We came to Europe
To rejoice in the freedom of expression;
To wash the dust off our bodies;
And to plant trees in the gardens of conscience.
(Syrian poet, Nizar Qabbani, 1923–98)

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of authors discussed ix
Introduction 1
1 The pre-colonial period: enchanted encounters 15
2 The colonial period: encounters under duress 34
3 The postcolonial period (1): proud encounters 87
4 The postcolonial period (2): humbled encounters 113
5 The encounter with America 153
6 The encounter through female eyes 185
Concluding remarks 205
Notes 209
Bibliography 238
Index 247
Acknowledgements
The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint their
material:
Indiana University Press/Research in African Literature for permission to
reprint material from ‘The Western encounter in the works of Yusuf Idris’,
Research in African Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, 1997, pp. 33–55.
Routledge/Taylor and Francis for permission to reprint material from ‘Tawfiq
al-Hakim and the West: a new assessment of the relationship’, in British Journal
of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, November 2000, http://www.tandf.co.uk
Al Saqi Books for permission to reprint material from ‘The Promethean Quest
in Louis Awad’s Memoirs of an Overseas Student’, in Writing the Self:
Autobiographical Writing in Modern Arabic Literature, Saqi Books, London,
1998, pp. 61–71.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to
reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any
copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any
errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
On the personal level, I would also like to extend my very warm thanks to MrPaul
Auchterlonie, subject librarian at the University of Exeter, for his indefatiguable
assistance in this and other projects over the years.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the indirect contribution to this book of
the many friends, acquaintances, and nameless fellow humans on both sides of
the so-called cultural divide from whom I learnt in the course of living, and
contrary to received wisdom, that East is West and West is East and that ever the
twain shall be together.
Authors discussed
Below is a list, for quick reference, of primary authors whose texts are studied in
this book. The names are given under the relevant chapter headings in the order
in which they occur in the chapters.
1 The pre-colonial period:enchanted encounters
1 cAbd al-Rahman al-Jabarti(1754–1825)
2 Niqulaal-Turk (1763–1828)
3 Rifaca Rafical-Tahtawi(1801–73)
4 Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1804–87)
5 Fransis Marrash (1836–73)
6 cAliMubarak (1823–93)
7 Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi(1820?–89)
8 Muhammad Bayram al-Khamis al-Tunisi(1840–89)
2 The colonial period:encounters under duress
9 Muhammad al-Muwaylihi(1858–1930)
10 JurjiZaydan (1861–1914)
11 MuhammadHusayn Haykal (1888–1956)
12 Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898–1987)
13 Husayn Fawzi(1900–88)
14 Shakib al-Jabiri(b. 1912)
15 TahaHusayn (1889–1973)
16 Ahmad Amin (1886–1954)
17 cAlial-Ducaji(1909–49)
18 YahyaHaqqi(1905–92)
19 Louis (Luwis)cAwad(1915–90)
20 Dhual-Nun Ayyub (1908–88)
21 Suhayl Idris (b. 1923?)
22 Waguih Ghali (d. 1969)
x Authors discussed
3 The postcolonial period (1):proud encounters
23 Yusuf Idris (1927–91)
24 FathiGhanim (1924–99)
25 cAbd al-Hamid Juda al-Sahhar (1913–74)
26 Al-Tayyib Salih(b. 1929)
27 cAbd al-Majid’bin Jallun (1919–81)
4 The postcolonial period (2):humbled encounters
28 Sulayman Fayyad(b. 1929)
29 Suncallah Ibrahim (b. 1937)
30 cAbd al-Hakim Qasim (1935–90)
31 Muhammad Zifzaf (1946–2001)
32 WalidHajjar (b. 1931)
33 Yasin Rifaciyya (b. 1934)
34 HannaMinah (b. 1924)
35 Khayrial-Dhahabi(b. 1946)
36 Baha~Tahir (b. 1935)
37 Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih (b. 1942)
38 Muhammad AbiSamra(b. 1953)
39 Fu~ad Yaziji(b. ?)
40 Fu~ad Qindil (1944)
5 The encounter with America
41 Amin al-Rihani(Ameen Rihani) (1876–1940)
42 Mikha~il Nucayma (Mikhail Naimy) (1889–1988)
43 Mahmud Taymur (1894–1973)
44 Sayyid Qutb (1906–66)
45 Philip Hitti (1886–1978)
46 Halim Barakat (b. 1933)
47 Yusuf Idris (1927–91)
48 Suncallah Ibrahim (b. 1937)
49 RadwacAshur (b. 1946)
50 Laila Abou Saif (b. 1941)
51 Salmaal-Haffar al-Kuzbari(b. 1922)
6 The encounter through female eyes
52 Kulit (Collette) Khuri(b. 1936)
53 Ghada al-Samman (b. 1942)
54 Hanan al-Shaykh (b. 1945)
55 Ahdaf Soueif (b. 1950)
56 Leila Aboulela (b. 1964)