Occidentalism/ Orientalism in Reverse: The West in the Eyes of Modern Arab Intellectuals

Year 2014, Issue: 39, 43 - 54, 01.04.2014

Mohammed Abdullah Hussein Muharram

Abstract

The Occidental Studies Unit at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies, Saudi Arabia is an indication of the interest of the Arab-Islamic World in “Occidentalism”. But what is Occidentalism? Does it really exist as a phenomenon that is opposed to Orientalism ? And how do Arab literary and non-literary writers view the West? In this article, I begin by exploring different views of Arab and western thinkers towards the existence of the phenomenon of “Occidentalism” or “orientalism in reverse” the dehumanized representation of the west , in an attempt to find a partial answer to the question some American intellectuals have been asking since 11 September 2001: why do they hate us?

References

• Al-Azm, Sadik Jalal. “Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse.” Khamsin, Journal of the Revolutionary Socialists of the Middle East 8 (1981): 6-25. Print.
• Al-Hakim, Tawfiq. Bird from the East. 1966. Trans. R. Baily Winder. Cairo: The American UP, 2004. Print.
• Al-Jabiri, Mohammed Abid. Human Development in the Arab World: The Cultural and Societal Dimensions. New York: United Nations, 1995. Print.
• Al-Sulaim, Fatimah Abdullah. The Arab Nahdha Projects and the Arab Intellectuals’ Perspectives of Modernity and Social Change in the Arab World. Diss. The American University, 2004. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2002. Print.
• Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso, 1991. Print.
• Arkoun, Mohammed. Arab Thought. New Delhi: S. Chand, 1988. Print.
• Ayyub, Dhu al-Nun. Al-Ductoor Ibrahim (Dr Ibrahim). 1939. Ministry of Education: Baghdad. Print.
• Bayoumi, Alaa. “Occidentalism in Late Nineteenth Century Egypt,” Diss. Duquesne University 2005. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2005. Proquest.com. Web. 3 Jan. 2014.
• Bilgrami, Akeel. “Occidentalism, the Very Idea: An Essay on Enlightenment and Enchantment.” Critical Inquiry 32.3 (2006): 381- 411. Print.
• Boroujerdi, Mehrzad. “Orientalism in Reverse: Iranian Intellectuals and the West, 1960-1990.” Diss. The American U. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1990. ProQuest. Web. 2 Jan. 2008.
• Buruma, Ian and Avishai Margalit. Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. Print.
• Derrida, Jacque. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” Writing and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P. 1978. Print.
• Fanon, Frantz. “On National Culture.” The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967. 166- 99. Print.
• Gramsci, Antonio. Selection from the Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci. Trans. Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. London, London: The Electric Book, 1999. Print.
• Haqqi, Yahya. The Lamp of Umm Hashim and Other Stories. 1944. Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies. Cairo: The American UP, 2004. Print.
• Huntington, Samuel . The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Print.
• Husain, Taha. A Stream of Days. Trans. Hillary Wayment. Cairo: Dar AlMa’arif, 1948. Print. Husain, Taha. Adib. Cairo: Dar al-Maaref. 1935. Print.
• Husain, Taha. The Future of Culture in Egypt. Trans. Sidney Glazer. New York: Octagon, 1956. Print.
• Kawakibi, Abd al-Rahman al. Umm al-qura. Port: Said, n.d. Print.
• Ning, Wang. “Orientalism versus Occidentalism?” New Literary History 28.1 (1997): 57-67. Print.
• Qutb, Sayyid. Al-Islam wa Mushkilat al-Hadarah (Islam and the Problem of Civilization). Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq. 1983. Print.
• Sabbagh, Suha. Going Against the West from Within: the Emergence of the West as an Other in Frantz Fanon’s work. New York and London: Routledge, 1982. Print.
• Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1978. Print.
• Shoukany, Muhammed Nasser. “Orientalism and the Arab literary Responses: Studies in Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Charles M. Doughty, Joseph Conrad, Jabra I. Jabra and Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad.” Diss. The U. of Texas at Austin, 1990. Print.