Post-colonialism, The Concept of the Self and the Other from an Arabic Perspective: An Analytical Approach

Abstract

Abstract: Postcolonial studies and theories have a way of appealing to the audience as they help one realize how their identity, country, and the world have been affected by colonial movements. Although postcolonialism studies are a vast scope, this research focused on the Arab world, specifically Palestine and Algeria. Two novels are discussed All That's Left to You by Ghassan Kanafani (1966) and Memory in the Flesh by Ahlam Mosteghanemi (1993). These two novels are connected with well-known postcolonial theorists. First, Edward Said expressed his personal experience, the identity crisis, and ideologies of the binary oppositions of self/other. In addition to the suffering of exile as a Palestinian displaced and the nostalgia for the homeland. This is what Kanafani’s novel depicts, as his characters depicted the confrontation between the Palestinian self and the Israeli other. This confrontation was marked by negativity and resulted in Hamid, the protagonist, emigrating from his home. Hamed suffered the bitterness of exile and distance from the family. The second theorist is Frantz Fanon, who fights against French colonialism. Fanon stresses the importance of violence and selfrecognition decolonialization and its psychological consequences. Thus, the Mosteghanemi portrayed Algeria after liberation and the Algerian self-recognition consequences in creating a positive perception of the relationship between the Algerian self and the French colonial one. In conclusion, the paper shows the consequences of the Arab inferior image that the orientalists create. So, to end these conflicts between opposed identities. Edward Said proposes the idea of a pluralistic identity.