Debunking the Myths of Colonization

The Arabs and Europe

By (author) Samar Attar

Paperback - £46.00

Publication date:

13 April 2010

Length of book:

316 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761850380

Debunking the Myths of Colonization. examines Salman Rushdie's thesis on the paradoxical nature of colonialism and its horrific impact on the psyche of the colonized. It probes Frantz Fanon's theories concerning the relationship between colonizers and colonized, and attempts to apply these theories to modern Arabic literature. Like Rushdi and Fanon, many Arab writers have embarked on a journey to the metropolis of their ex-colonial masters. Due to their encounter with English or French culture, they have written memoirs, poems, or fictions in which they have represented themselves and the 'other.' Their representations differ markedly according to their own make up as human beings, their class, education, experiences, and gender. Yet what brings them together is their love-hate relationship with the ex-colonizer. In the case of the Palestinian writers, however, there is only bitterness and bewilderment at Israel as a colonizing power in the 21st century and its Jewish citizens, who were once victims in Europe but now have turned into victimizers.
Attar's sophisticated and highly nuanced narrative describes the positive and largely negative impacts of colonialism from the perspectives of these Arab writers....Attar's excellent work goes far toward proving the negative impacts of colonialism while emphasizing the complexity of relationships between the colonized and colonizers. This work provides rich material for future debates and studies on the literature of the contemporary Arab world. It is a fine work of both literary and colonial/political theory that merits adoption in a wide variety of university classes as well as inclusion in the libraries of scholars and those interested in the Arab world and its astounding cultural achievements.