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Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
a
h Zahia Smail Salhi
Series editor: Rasheed El-Enany i
a
Occidentalism
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This series, dedicated to the study of modern Arabic literature, is unique and
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unprecedented. It includes contemporary genre studies, single-author studies,
a
studies of particular movements, trends, groupings, themes and periods in Modern i
l
Arabic Literature, as well as country/region-based studies. S
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l Literary Representations of
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‘Ambitious and lucid, this book provides a comprehensive view of modern
the Maghrebi Experience of the
Algerian literature originating in the colonial period through the lens of L
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“occidentalism”. It is a valuable addition to the scholarship on the enduring, r
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complex, and shifting relationship between coloniser and colonised in the ry East–West Encounter
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production of literary knowledge.’ ep
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Marnia Lazreg, City University of New York s
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Explores the encounters between East and West in Maghrebi a e
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literature in the pre-1945 period n u
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Maghrebi literature published in the first half of the twentieth century is a subject that f a
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seldom receives focused scholarly treatment. This is partly due to limited availability of the h r
books, some of which were printed in as few as fifty copies. Zahia Smail Salhi tracked down e Mc e
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these rare works and put them in the spotlight for the first time here. Through close textual agi Li
analysis and in-depth engagement with religious and socio-political contexts, this book hrd
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determines whether these texts belong to a collective formation we may call ‘Occidentalism’. b
234mm In so doing, this book reintegrates the pre-1945 Maghrebi novels into the history and study of i Exnt bi
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modern Arabic literature. e
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Key Features ienis A
• Focuses on the work of early Algerian intelligentsia known as the Young Algerians and their cem
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insistent letters to the Occident f r
• Depicts the Maghrebi encounter with the Occident as a plea to extend Western civilisation th e
e d
to all factions of the colonised society E
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• Engages with the work of early French feminists and its impact on the birth of Algerian st– M
feminism W y
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• Includes readings of key texts by Chukri Khodja, Saad ben Ali, Djamila Débêche, Fadhma st na
Amrouche, Mouloud Feraoun, Ferhat Abbas and Albert Memmi, among many others E in
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Zahia Smail Salhi is Chair of Modern Arabic Studies, University of Manchester, and Vice- u eEl
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President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. She is the author of Politics and te did
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Poetics in the Algerian Novel (1999). u
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ISBN 978-0-7486-4580-0 h
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edinburghuniversitypress.com be
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Cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk
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Cover image: © QARM QART qarmqart.com diri
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Occidentalism
Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
Series Editor: Rasheed El-Enany
Writing Beirut: Mappings of the City in the Modern Arabic Novel
Samira Aghacy
Autobiographical Identities in Contemporary Arab Literature
Valerie Anishchenkova
The Iraqi Novel: Key Writers, Key Texts
Fabio Caiani and Catherine Cobham
Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel
Ziad Elmarsafy
Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel: Egypt 1892–2008
Hoda Elsadda
The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual: Prophecy, Exile and the Nation
Zeina G. Halabi
Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction: Home Matters in the Diaspora
Syrine Hout
Prophetic Translation: the Makingof Modern Egyptian Literature
Maya I. Kesrouany
Nasser in the Egyptian Imaginary
Omar Khalifah
Conspiracy in Modern Egyptian Literature
Benjamin Koerber
War and Occupation in Iraqi Fiction
Ikram Masmoudi
Literary Autobiography and Arab National Struggles
Tahia Abdel Nasser
The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement
Abdulrazzak Patel
Blogging from Egypt: Digital Literature, 2005–2016
Teresa Pepe
Occidentalism: Literary Representations of the Maghrebi Experience of the
East–West Encounter
Zahia Smail Salhi
Sonallah Ibrahim: Rebel with a Pen
Paul Starkey
Minorities in the Contemporary Egyptian Novel
Mary Youssef
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/smal
Occidentalism
Literary Representations of
the Maghrebi Experience of the
East–West Encounter
Zahia Smail Salhi
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Zahia Smail Salhi, 2019
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4580 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4581 7 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5323 3 (epub)
The right of Zahia Smail Salhi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword vi
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 The Maghreb and the Occident: Towards the Construction of an
Occidentalist Discourse 10
2 From the Faraway Orient to the Reclaimed Occident: French
Civilisation, Religious Conversion and Cultural Assimilation 37
3 The Occident and the Barbary Corsairs: Pre-colonial Maghrebi
Encounters with the Occident 71
4 ‘La France, c’est moi’: Love and Infatuation with the Occident 93
5 The Occident and the Oriental Woman: Rescuing the Oriental
Man’s Victim? 125
6 The New Maghrebi Woman and the Occident: From
Occidentophilia to Ambivalence 154
7 The End of the Chimera: Disillusion, Alienation and
Ambivalence 188
Afterword 216
Notes 220
Bibliography 252
Index 265
vi | occidentalism
and writing both in English and Arabic; the adoption of such authors and
others by mainstream, high-circulation publishers, as opposed to the aca-
demic publishers of the past; the establishment of prestigious prizes, such as
the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (the Arabic Booker), run
by the Man Booker Foundation, which brings huge publicity to the shortlist
Series Editor’s Foreword
and winner every year, as well as translation contracts into English and other
languages; and, very recently, the events of the Arab Spring. It is therefore
part of the ambition of this series that it will increasingly address a wider read-
ing public beyond its natural territory of students and researchers in Arabic
Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature is a new and unique series and world literature. Nor indeed is the academic readership of the series
that will, it is hoped, fill in a glaring gap in scholarship in the field of expected to be confined to specialists in literature in the light of the growing
modern Arabic literature. Its dedication to Arabic literature in the modern trend for interdisciplinarity, which increasingly sees scholars crossing field
period, that is, from the nineteenth century onwards, is what makes it unique boundaries in their research tools and coming up with findings that equally
among series undertaken by academic publishers in the English-speaking cross discipline borders in their appeal.
world. Individual books on modern Arabic literature in general or aspects
of it have been and continue to be published sporadically. Series on Islamic This monograph fills a glaring gap in studies of modern literature of North
studies and Arab/Islamic thought and civilisation are not in short supply Africa. The theme of the East–West encounter in Arabic literature, important
either in the academic world, but these are far removed from the study of as it is and dating back in Arabic writing to the early nineteenth century (spe-
Arabic literature qua literature, that is, imaginative, creative literature as we cifically from 1798, the year of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt) and continu-
understand the term when, for instance, we speak of English literature or ing with unabated interest until today – this theme has remarkably remained
French literature. Even series labelled ‘Arabic/Middle Eastern Literature’ until recently little studied, except in the odd journal article or incidental
make no period distinction, extending their purview from the sixth century treatment in a literary history or general genre study. My own monograph,
to the present, and often including non-Arabic literatures of the region. This Arab Representations of the Occident: East–West Encounters in Arabic Fiction
series aims to redress the situation by focusing on the Arabic literature and (2006), went some way towards redressing this deficiency in scholarship. I
criticism of today, stretching its interest to the earliest beginnings of Arab recall while researching the subject how I gradually discovered the massive-
modernity in the nineteenth century. ness of the field. Despite stringent and restrictive criteria of selection, I ended
The need for such a dedicated series, and generally for the redoubling up studying fifty-four authors from across the Arab world and hundreds of
of scholarly endeavour in researching and introducing modern Arabic litera- works spanning a two-century period. I am giving this detail in order to come
ture to the Western reader, has never been stronger. Among activities and to the point most relevant to the monograph in hand. The vastness of the
events heightening public, let alone academic, interest in all things Arab, subject and immensity of primary sources meant that I had to make a difficult
and not least Arabic literature, are the significant growth in the last decades decision, namely, to limit myself to the Arab east or mashriq and exclude
of the translation of contemporary Arab authors from all genres, especially the maghrib or North Africa. While my exclusion was dictated by practical
fiction, into English; the higher profile of Arabic literature internationally considerations, it was certainly aided by other substantial factors, particularly
since the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Naguib Mahfouz in the historical and cultural specificity of the North African experience that
1988; the growing number of Arab authors living in the Western diaspora distinguishes it from that of the mashriq, as well as the de facto disciplinary
vi
series editor’s foreword | vii
and writing both in English and Arabic; the adoption of such authors and
others by mainstream, high-circulation publishers, as opposed to the aca-
demic publishers of the past; the establishment of prestigious prizes, such as
the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (the Arabic Booker), run
by the Man Booker Foundation, which brings huge publicity to the shortlist
and winner every year, as well as translation contracts into English and other
languages; and, very recently, the events of the Arab Spring. It is therefore
part of the ambition of this series that it will increasingly address a wider read-
ing public beyond its natural territory of students and researchers in Arabic
and world literature. Nor indeed is the academic readership of the series
expected to be confined to specialists in literature in the light of the growing
trend for interdisciplinarity, which increasingly sees scholars crossing field
boundaries in their research tools and coming up with findings that equally
cross discipline borders in their appeal.
This monograph fills a glaring gap in studies of modern literature of North
Africa. The theme of the East–West encounter in Arabic literature, important
as it is and dating back in Arabic writing to the early nineteenth century (spe-
cifically from 1798, the year of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt) and continu-
ing with unabated interest until today – this theme has remarkably remained
until recently little studied, except in the odd journal article or incidental
treatment in a literary history or general genre study. My own monograph,
Arab Representations of the Occident: East–West Encounters in Arabic Fiction
(2006), went some way towards redressing this deficiency in scholarship. I
recall while researching the subject how I gradually discovered the massive-
ness of the field. Despite stringent and restrictive criteria of selection, I ended
up studying fifty-four authors from across the Arab world and hundreds of
works spanning a two-century period. I am giving this detail in order to come
to the point most relevant to the monograph in hand. The vastness of the
subject and immensity of primary sources meant that I had to make a difficult
decision, namely, to limit myself to the Arab east or mashriq and exclude
the maghrib or North Africa. While my exclusion was dictated by practical
considerations, it was certainly aided by other substantial factors, particularly
the historical and cultural specificity of the North African experience that
distinguishes it from that of the mashriq, as well as the de facto disciplinary
viii | occidentalism
division that exists in academia between studies of the Middle East on the one
hand, and North Africa on the other. The current volume does exactly what
my own study has fallen short of: to extend the investigation of representa-
tions of the theme of East–West encounters to North African literature, and
particularly that of Algeria as a case study. The relevance of this book acquires
more immediacy in view of the dramatic political changes that have been
taking place on the ground in North Africa since the Tunisian revolution
of 2010 and its widespread regional repercussions. Those events make the
need even more pressing today for such studies as this, which trace back
the historical and cultural encounter to its origins and seek to represent the
region’s view of the western other by reversing, so to speak, the Orientalist
coin which normally only showed the colonialist European view of the Arab.
Professor Rasheed El-Enany, Series Editor,
Emeritus Professor of Modern Arabic Literature,
University of Exeter
acknowledgements | ix
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who supported me through the
writing of this book. I am especially grateful for the support of my family
and I hope they will understand why I could not be among them for the last
few summers.
My gratitude goes to Professor Rasheed El-Enany, the series editor, for
his patience and understanding and for his invaluable comments on the first
draft of this book. I hope my Maghrebi voice will succeed in joining his
Mashriqi voice in his inspirational Arab Representations of Occident, to draw
a fuller picture of the encounter between the Arab world and the Occident.
ix
