This document summarizes Samuel Johnson's 1759 novel Rasselas and how it portrays the Orient in a negative light. Johnson presents the Arabs and Muslims as inferior through characters like Imlac and Rasselas. According to Johnson, Arabs are "sons of Ishmael" - infidels, aggressive, and their governments are unstable and despotic. Johnson builds on existing Western stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs as being backwards. The summary examines Johnson's limited knowledge of the Orient and how his work reinforced imperialist attitudes of Western superiority over Eastern cultures.
Confronting Authority: J.M. Coetzee's Foe and the Remaking of Robinson Crusoe Goswami Mahirpari
Susan Naramore Maher discusses how J.M. Coetzee's novel Foe undermines the authority of Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe through its reimagining of the story. In Foe, Crusoe is depicted as a purposeless and unproductive man who refuses to shape the island or help the story's true creator, Susan Barton. The novel confronts Defoe's ideology of realism by highlighting the constructed nature of stories and questioning the ability of words to recreate experience.
The slides for ""Mysterious Illnesses": Religion, Illness and Empathy in the Victorian Queer Gothic", a class given as part of Dr Sam Hirst's Romancing the Gothic project.
To what extent does Victorian literature challenge this construction of the d...Sophie Peek
This document analyzes how Victorian literature challenges constructions of the domestic sphere through an examination of the novels Lady Audley's Secret and She. Both novels feature powerful female protagonists, Lucy Audley and Ayesha, who subvert traditional gender roles and threaten the patriarchal social order. However, the novels ultimately reinscribe women within the domestic sphere through the protagonists' deaths or confinement. While the novels highlight anxieties about women's changing roles, they reinforce that women cannot wholly exist outside the home without being seen as "improper." The document examines themes of concealed pasts, desires, and the portrayal of women's power as a form of madness to understand how the novels both challenge and affirm Victorian gender ideology
Determinism and Pessimism in the Novels of Thomas Hardypaperpublications3
Hardy set his "Novels of Character and Environment," as he did most of his other novels, poems and short stories, around
the market town of Dorchester ('Casterbridge'), near his boyhood home at Bockhampton, on the edge of 'Egdon' Heath.
Although both Anthony Trollope (1815-82) and George Eliot (1819-80) had used similar settings in their novels, Hardy's
rural backdrop is neither romantic nor idealized. From the publication of his first novels Hardy's critics accused him of
being overly pessimistic about humanity's place in the scheme of things. In all his fiction, chance is the incarnation of the
blind forces controlling human destiny," as Lord David Cecil remarks in Hardy the Novelist, p. 24-30. Ironically the blind
forces of 'Hap' seem to favour certain characters while they relentlessly pursue those who deserve better, such as Tess, as
well as those whose ends we might regard as proof of Nemesis or Poetic Justice (Sergeant Troy in Far from the Madding
Crowd , Lucetta in The Mayor of Casterbridge , and Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles ). An entry in Hardy's notebook
dated April 1878 gives us a clue to the guiding principle behind his fiction:
A Plot, or Tragedy, should arise from the gradual closing in of a situation that comes of ordinary human passions,
prejudices, and ambitions, by reason of the characters taking no trouble to ward off the disastrous events produced by the
said passions, prejudices, and ambitions.
The document discusses three South African authors: Manu Herbstein, Zakes Mda, and Zoë Wicomb. Manu Herbstein is a South African-Ghanaian author who has lived in Ghana since 1970. His novels address the Atlantic slave trade. Zakes Mda is a critically acclaimed post-Apartheid author whose works explore maintaining African traditions versus Western influences. Zoë Wicomb's book You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town addresses the experience of "Coloured" people in apartheid South Africa who did not fit into any racial category.
Initially published on 25th July 2010 in American Chronicle, AfroArticles and Buzzle
Excerpt:
In the present sixth article of the series, I republish further excerpts from the same volume of Bulatovich; focused on the Abyssinians, these critical paragraphs by Bulatovich highlight the unclean and incestuous character of the pseudo-Christian Abyssinian society.
They represent some of Bulatovich´s most critical paragraphs because they reveal the abysmal reality of the Abyssinian society, namely all that has been scrupulously hidden by the Abyssinians and their allies, the Freemasonic, colonial regimes of Paris, London and Washington.
It is a lie that the Amhara Tewahedo (Monophysitic) Abyssinians are Christians; in fact, they constitute a desecrated society rejected by all Christian believers, because they practice a generalized fornication which is incompatible with the Christian creed, faith and principles.
With no family, there is no Christian society.
All the Oromos, Ogadenis, Afars, Sidamas and others, who fight for their independence, and all the neighboring countries, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt, which are threatened because of the evil, Satanic eschatological dreams of Greater Ethiopia, must diffuse these great text, which was published by the Russian explorer before 110 years, to the four corners of the universe.
The true barbarous identity of the Amharas is revealed in the chapter on the Abyssinian family that Bulatovich found it necessary to elaborate and submit to the top Russian imperial authorities.
In fact, there is no family in the Amhara society whereby an extensive fornication has been imposed by the pseudo-Christian monks. This filthy and barbaric practice makes of the Amhara society the outcast of the Mankind and the embodiment of the savages.
It is only for the needs of the Anti-Islamic plot of the Anglo-French Freemasonry and the Zionist movement that the Abyssinians are widely but erroneously considered as Christians.
Their fake Jesus is in fact the Antichrist mentioned in John´s Revelation, and their eschatological aspirations about Zion in their dirty and fake Ethiopia apply to a society deprived of marriage and forced into fornication.
Manu Herbstein is a South African author who has lived in Ghana since 1970. His novel Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize and tells the story of a woman captured and sold into slavery in Brazil. Zakes Mda is a critically acclaimed post-Apartheid South African author whose works explore the struggle to maintain traditional African values against Western influences. One such work is The Heart of Redness, which depicts a man returning to a rural village after time abroad. Zoë Wicomb's book You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town explores the experience of "Coloured" South Africans under apartheid through the story of a girl sent to integrate a prestigious school in
Confronting Authority: J.M. Coetzee's Foe and the Remaking of Robinson Crusoe Goswami Mahirpari
Susan Naramore Maher discusses how J.M. Coetzee's novel Foe undermines the authority of Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe through its reimagining of the story. In Foe, Crusoe is depicted as a purposeless and unproductive man who refuses to shape the island or help the story's true creator, Susan Barton. The novel confronts Defoe's ideology of realism by highlighting the constructed nature of stories and questioning the ability of words to recreate experience.
The slides for ""Mysterious Illnesses": Religion, Illness and Empathy in the Victorian Queer Gothic", a class given as part of Dr Sam Hirst's Romancing the Gothic project.
To what extent does Victorian literature challenge this construction of the d...Sophie Peek
This document analyzes how Victorian literature challenges constructions of the domestic sphere through an examination of the novels Lady Audley's Secret and She. Both novels feature powerful female protagonists, Lucy Audley and Ayesha, who subvert traditional gender roles and threaten the patriarchal social order. However, the novels ultimately reinscribe women within the domestic sphere through the protagonists' deaths or confinement. While the novels highlight anxieties about women's changing roles, they reinforce that women cannot wholly exist outside the home without being seen as "improper." The document examines themes of concealed pasts, desires, and the portrayal of women's power as a form of madness to understand how the novels both challenge and affirm Victorian gender ideology
Determinism and Pessimism in the Novels of Thomas Hardypaperpublications3
Hardy set his "Novels of Character and Environment," as he did most of his other novels, poems and short stories, around
the market town of Dorchester ('Casterbridge'), near his boyhood home at Bockhampton, on the edge of 'Egdon' Heath.
Although both Anthony Trollope (1815-82) and George Eliot (1819-80) had used similar settings in their novels, Hardy's
rural backdrop is neither romantic nor idealized. From the publication of his first novels Hardy's critics accused him of
being overly pessimistic about humanity's place in the scheme of things. In all his fiction, chance is the incarnation of the
blind forces controlling human destiny," as Lord David Cecil remarks in Hardy the Novelist, p. 24-30. Ironically the blind
forces of 'Hap' seem to favour certain characters while they relentlessly pursue those who deserve better, such as Tess, as
well as those whose ends we might regard as proof of Nemesis or Poetic Justice (Sergeant Troy in Far from the Madding
Crowd , Lucetta in The Mayor of Casterbridge , and Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles ). An entry in Hardy's notebook
dated April 1878 gives us a clue to the guiding principle behind his fiction:
A Plot, or Tragedy, should arise from the gradual closing in of a situation that comes of ordinary human passions,
prejudices, and ambitions, by reason of the characters taking no trouble to ward off the disastrous events produced by the
said passions, prejudices, and ambitions.
The document discusses three South African authors: Manu Herbstein, Zakes Mda, and Zoë Wicomb. Manu Herbstein is a South African-Ghanaian author who has lived in Ghana since 1970. His novels address the Atlantic slave trade. Zakes Mda is a critically acclaimed post-Apartheid author whose works explore maintaining African traditions versus Western influences. Zoë Wicomb's book You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town addresses the experience of "Coloured" people in apartheid South Africa who did not fit into any racial category.
Initially published on 25th July 2010 in American Chronicle, AfroArticles and Buzzle
Excerpt:
In the present sixth article of the series, I republish further excerpts from the same volume of Bulatovich; focused on the Abyssinians, these critical paragraphs by Bulatovich highlight the unclean and incestuous character of the pseudo-Christian Abyssinian society.
They represent some of Bulatovich´s most critical paragraphs because they reveal the abysmal reality of the Abyssinian society, namely all that has been scrupulously hidden by the Abyssinians and their allies, the Freemasonic, colonial regimes of Paris, London and Washington.
It is a lie that the Amhara Tewahedo (Monophysitic) Abyssinians are Christians; in fact, they constitute a desecrated society rejected by all Christian believers, because they practice a generalized fornication which is incompatible with the Christian creed, faith and principles.
With no family, there is no Christian society.
All the Oromos, Ogadenis, Afars, Sidamas and others, who fight for their independence, and all the neighboring countries, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt, which are threatened because of the evil, Satanic eschatological dreams of Greater Ethiopia, must diffuse these great text, which was published by the Russian explorer before 110 years, to the four corners of the universe.
The true barbarous identity of the Amharas is revealed in the chapter on the Abyssinian family that Bulatovich found it necessary to elaborate and submit to the top Russian imperial authorities.
In fact, there is no family in the Amhara society whereby an extensive fornication has been imposed by the pseudo-Christian monks. This filthy and barbaric practice makes of the Amhara society the outcast of the Mankind and the embodiment of the savages.
It is only for the needs of the Anti-Islamic plot of the Anglo-French Freemasonry and the Zionist movement that the Abyssinians are widely but erroneously considered as Christians.
Their fake Jesus is in fact the Antichrist mentioned in John´s Revelation, and their eschatological aspirations about Zion in their dirty and fake Ethiopia apply to a society deprived of marriage and forced into fornication.
Manu Herbstein is a South African author who has lived in Ghana since 1970. His novel Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize and tells the story of a woman captured and sold into slavery in Brazil. Zakes Mda is a critically acclaimed post-Apartheid South African author whose works explore the struggle to maintain traditional African values against Western influences. One such work is The Heart of Redness, which depicts a man returning to a rural village after time abroad. Zoë Wicomb's book You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town explores the experience of "Coloured" South Africans under apartheid through the story of a girl sent to integrate a prestigious school in
- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys retells the story of Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on her life as Antoinette in the West Indies before her marriage.
- Rhys aims to give voice to the silenced and marginalized characters in Jane Eyre, particularly Antoinette/Bertha, and depict the orientalist attitudes towards Creole people in the Caribbean.
- Through multiple narrators, Rhys questions the reality of Antoinette's supposed madness and generates sympathy for her as a victim of patriarchal and imperial oppression, in contrast to Mr. Rochester.
This document provides a summary and analysis of the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It discusses how the novel examines identity in the West Indies following emancipation. It explores themes of displacement, cultural alienation, and resentment between racial groups in post-slavery society. The main character, Antoinette, struggles with her identity as a white Creole who is rejected by both white and black communities. Her unstable sense of self is reflected in her fragmented memories and narratives. The document analyzes how Rhys uses Antoinette's perspective to challenge the portrayal of Creoles in Jane Eyre and foreground the complex realities of West Indian identity politics.
Your pen your ink coetzees foe robinson crusoe and the polGoswami Mahirpari
This document summarizes an academic journal article that analyzes J.M. Coetzee's novel Foe as a parody of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. It argues that Coetzee uses parody to critique not just Defoe's novel, but the broader ideology of colonialism that Crusoe represents. By claiming Foe preceded Crusoe, Coetzee throws the realism of Crusoe into doubt and suggests Defoe manipulated the truth. Coetzee also artificially reconstructs silenced voices in Crusoe to show how Defoe promoted justifications for colonial power. The summary aims to uncover what these two "voices" say about colonialism and its justifications through a comparison of key
This document provides a summary and analysis of themes in Jean Rhys' novels Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea. Both novels follow young women from the West Indies struggling to survive in patriarchal societies. While Voyage in the Dark is set in 1920s London and Wide Sargasso Sea is set in the 19th century Caribbean, both novels explore themes of female loneliness, despair, and oppression under patriarchal systems. Neither novel follows a traditional bildungsroman structure, as the protagonists are unable to develop or find their place in society due to their marginalized positions. The analysis draws connections to Jack Halberstam's concept of "shadow feminism" to understand how Rhys
This document discusses how 18th century British women writers addressed colonialism in their works, which has often been overlooked. It argues that women saw themselves as engaged in public debates and felt compelled to comment on British colonial expansion. Works like Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women and novels by Smith, Behn and Austen touched on colonial topics. The document examines how women writers portrayed the negative impacts of colonialism, such as British men leaving home for the colonies, endangering their national identity and morals. Novels tried to discourage colonial migration or retrieve men home through marriage. They expressed fears that time abroad risked Britons going "native." The document aims to further study how women reconciled
This document summarizes a study analyzing themes of displacement in Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea. The study focuses on the unnamed Western husband of the main character Antoinette and reasons for his feelings of displacement in the Caribbean. It provides context on post-colonial theory and previous analyses of the novel, which primarily centered on Antoinette's oppression. The objective is to understand the husband's perspective and how his alienation contributed to his mistreatment of Antoinette.
The Gothic novel originated in the late 18th century in Britain and was the most popular form of literature during that time. It appealed to all classes, especially women. Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) was one of the first bestsellers. Gothic novels featured recurring elements like a virtuous heroine pursued by a villainous man in a haunted setting like a castle. The genre included two main styles - Radcliffe's "School of Terror" emphasized mystery and suspense while Matthew Lewis's "School of Horror" featured more graphic violence. While mostly written by women, the Gothic was dismissed by male critics but greatly influenced popular tastes.
Difficult human situations_in_jean_rhys wide sergasso sea Goswami Mahirpari
The document discusses Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea and how it serves as a prequel and justification for the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. It analyzes how Rhys uses the metaphor of the Sargasso Sea to represent the complex situations and relationships between characters of different cultures and backgrounds. In particular, it examines the dysfunctional and misunderstood marriages between Creole women and British men in the novel, and how this reflects the tensions between European and West Indian societies in the 19th century.
This document summarizes and analyzes the representation of women in three African novels: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee. It finds that Achebe's novel features marginalized female characters within a patriarchal culture, while Ngugi depicts strong, courageous women who actively participate in the struggle for freedom. Coetzee symbolically represents the colonized as a barbarian girl who is voiceless and inferior to the male characters.
This document discusses how references to myths enrich literature and art. It provides examples of how myths have been incorporated into Western works throughout history, from Dante in the 14th century to modern works. It explains how views on using myths in literature changed over time, from being frowned upon in early Christianity to being embraced during the Renaissance and onward. The document also notes growing interest in Native American mythology and trends involving fairy tales.
This research paper would like to examine Marlow’s frailty as a narrator, his ethnocentricity and color consciousness and inability to comprehend inscrutable Africa that leads the author to support the colonizers against the Africans and how his approach is shared by Conrad as well. Conrad, in the colonial novel, Heart of Darkness has biasness for European colonialism, though the biasness is not so much conspicuous but ostensible, covertly and allusively maintained throughout. This study aims to focus upon Conrad’s treatment of and race and racial conflicts. It also would like to explain the concept of race through applying the critical comments made by different critics and scholars.
Women writers of the romantic period finale: Rewriting the Masculine WorldJoshua Gnana Raj P
The Romantic Period was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement, it is called such since, the period brought in many changes which include the rapid spread of the ownership of clocks with minute hands throughout the late nineteenth-century. This period made lawyers to condemn old sundials as childish. It was also the time when culturally as well as socially, termed as an age of transition from gothic writing characteristics of the second half of the eighteenth-century with a particular appeal to a new generation of women readers, to a more patriarchal aesthetics in which the popular styles of earlier ages were dismissed as unmanly.
This was the period in which men writers flourished. Yet there are many female writers who never had their fame glow as their male counterparts. This paper will deal with the hidden female writers of the Romantic era. This paper will also mainly focus on the rethinking of the individual and the Romantic society at large.
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" and its purpose, form, and influences. It aims to convey a sense of emptiness and aimlessness in the soul and civilization after World War I. Eliot uses techniques like the "mythical method" and references works like Jung's archetypes, Weston's "From Ritual to Romance", and Frazer's "The Golden Bough" to structure the fragmented experience of modernity. The form captures 1920s techniques like collage, film, and jazz to represent the dissonance of modern life.
The novel emerged in the 18th century, influenced by previous fictions but distinct in focusing on middle-class values and everyday life rather than aristocracy or the supernatural. Key to its development were rising literacy, print technology, notions of history/progress, capitalism, individualism, secularism, Protestant values, urbanization, women's rights, and increased mobility through industry, transport, and imperialism. The novel was well-suited to depicting individuals rather than groups and linear development rather than complexity. Main types included epistolary, picaresque, anti-novel, gothic, historical, satirical, and postmodernist, with magic realism drawing on earlier influences like Tristram Shand
A.E. Housman was an English poet and scholar born in 1859 in Worcestershire, England. He wrote two poetry volumes, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems, the latter of which was successful. As a scholar he is respected for his annotated editions of Roman astronomer Marcus Manilius. Housman died in 1936 in Cambridge, England.
This document summarizes a class lecture on modernism that included discussion of the poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), the short story "Odour of Chrysanthemums" by D.H. Lawrence, and an author presentation on James Joyce.
The class discussed H.D.'s life and how her work exemplified themes of literary modernism like breaking from Victorian norms. It also analyzed Lawrence's short story through discussion questions about its use of symbols like chrysanthemums and themes of misunderstanding between spouses. Finally, it introduced Joyce as an important modernist writer known for works like Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Fin
This document summarizes and analyzes the Kurdish nation and nationalist movement. It begins by discussing the author's experience in Indonesia where he noticed a lack of strong national identity and instead found stronger local and religious identities. It then discusses theories that the modern nation is often a constructed identity promoted by elites rather than an organic popular identity. The document focuses on the Kurdish people, who number around 30 million but lack an independent state, being divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. It analyzes Kurdish nationalist uprisings and struggles for autonomy or independence. The document proposes examining the nation as both imagined through identity and performed through nationalism to understand cases like the Kurdish nation.
ORIENTATIONS AND ORIENTALISM THE GOVERNOR SIR RONALD STORRSislamicjerusalem
This article analyzes Sir Ronald Storrs, the first governor of Jerusalem, through the lens of Orientalism. It summarizes that Storrs was a product of British imperialism and held many stereotypical views of Arabs influenced by Orientalism. The article examines Storrs' background, education, career as governor of Jerusalem and Cyprus, and his book "Orientations" to argue he propagated British colonial views that justified domination of the Middle East. While views differ on Storrs' stance on Zionism, the article uses his writing to show he reflected common British prejudices against Arabs and an exaggerated view of Western classical texts in his governance.
This document provides a summary and analysis of Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent. It discusses how the novel initially seems to construct a divide between Eastern and Western national identities, representing Russia as the Orientalized East opposed to the Western identity of Britain. However, Conrad also begins to challenge and deconstruct this binary. The Russian character Vladimir both reinforces Eastern stereotypes but also mimics the West in unsettling ways, complicating the simple East/West dichotomy. Ultimately, Conrad's novel questions fixed notions of national and regional identity by showing their instability and the ways in which Eastern and Western identities can blend together.
This document is a comparative literature assignment submitted by Fatima Gul that discusses the politicization of non-Western literature and rejection of the formalist approach. It provides examples of how Western civilization has presented an inaccurate portrayal of non-Western cultures and politicized their literature. It discusses several non-Western writers like Chinua Achebe and Frantz Fanon who highlighted the negative impacts of Western colonialism and how it disrupted traditional ways of life in Africa and presented the colonized people in a demeaning light. The assignment argues that the formalist approach to studying literature fails to acknowledge the deeper themes, ideas and philosophies in non-Western works and asserts the need to consider the socio-historical contexts.
- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys retells the story of Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on her life as Antoinette in the West Indies before her marriage.
- Rhys aims to give voice to the silenced and marginalized characters in Jane Eyre, particularly Antoinette/Bertha, and depict the orientalist attitudes towards Creole people in the Caribbean.
- Through multiple narrators, Rhys questions the reality of Antoinette's supposed madness and generates sympathy for her as a victim of patriarchal and imperial oppression, in contrast to Mr. Rochester.
This document provides a summary and analysis of the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It discusses how the novel examines identity in the West Indies following emancipation. It explores themes of displacement, cultural alienation, and resentment between racial groups in post-slavery society. The main character, Antoinette, struggles with her identity as a white Creole who is rejected by both white and black communities. Her unstable sense of self is reflected in her fragmented memories and narratives. The document analyzes how Rhys uses Antoinette's perspective to challenge the portrayal of Creoles in Jane Eyre and foreground the complex realities of West Indian identity politics.
Your pen your ink coetzees foe robinson crusoe and the polGoswami Mahirpari
This document summarizes an academic journal article that analyzes J.M. Coetzee's novel Foe as a parody of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. It argues that Coetzee uses parody to critique not just Defoe's novel, but the broader ideology of colonialism that Crusoe represents. By claiming Foe preceded Crusoe, Coetzee throws the realism of Crusoe into doubt and suggests Defoe manipulated the truth. Coetzee also artificially reconstructs silenced voices in Crusoe to show how Defoe promoted justifications for colonial power. The summary aims to uncover what these two "voices" say about colonialism and its justifications through a comparison of key
This document provides a summary and analysis of themes in Jean Rhys' novels Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea. Both novels follow young women from the West Indies struggling to survive in patriarchal societies. While Voyage in the Dark is set in 1920s London and Wide Sargasso Sea is set in the 19th century Caribbean, both novels explore themes of female loneliness, despair, and oppression under patriarchal systems. Neither novel follows a traditional bildungsroman structure, as the protagonists are unable to develop or find their place in society due to their marginalized positions. The analysis draws connections to Jack Halberstam's concept of "shadow feminism" to understand how Rhys
This document discusses how 18th century British women writers addressed colonialism in their works, which has often been overlooked. It argues that women saw themselves as engaged in public debates and felt compelled to comment on British colonial expansion. Works like Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women and novels by Smith, Behn and Austen touched on colonial topics. The document examines how women writers portrayed the negative impacts of colonialism, such as British men leaving home for the colonies, endangering their national identity and morals. Novels tried to discourage colonial migration or retrieve men home through marriage. They expressed fears that time abroad risked Britons going "native." The document aims to further study how women reconciled
This document summarizes a study analyzing themes of displacement in Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea. The study focuses on the unnamed Western husband of the main character Antoinette and reasons for his feelings of displacement in the Caribbean. It provides context on post-colonial theory and previous analyses of the novel, which primarily centered on Antoinette's oppression. The objective is to understand the husband's perspective and how his alienation contributed to his mistreatment of Antoinette.
The Gothic novel originated in the late 18th century in Britain and was the most popular form of literature during that time. It appealed to all classes, especially women. Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) was one of the first bestsellers. Gothic novels featured recurring elements like a virtuous heroine pursued by a villainous man in a haunted setting like a castle. The genre included two main styles - Radcliffe's "School of Terror" emphasized mystery and suspense while Matthew Lewis's "School of Horror" featured more graphic violence. While mostly written by women, the Gothic was dismissed by male critics but greatly influenced popular tastes.
Difficult human situations_in_jean_rhys wide sergasso sea Goswami Mahirpari
The document discusses Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea and how it serves as a prequel and justification for the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. It analyzes how Rhys uses the metaphor of the Sargasso Sea to represent the complex situations and relationships between characters of different cultures and backgrounds. In particular, it examines the dysfunctional and misunderstood marriages between Creole women and British men in the novel, and how this reflects the tensions between European and West Indian societies in the 19th century.
This document summarizes and analyzes the representation of women in three African novels: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee. It finds that Achebe's novel features marginalized female characters within a patriarchal culture, while Ngugi depicts strong, courageous women who actively participate in the struggle for freedom. Coetzee symbolically represents the colonized as a barbarian girl who is voiceless and inferior to the male characters.
This document discusses how references to myths enrich literature and art. It provides examples of how myths have been incorporated into Western works throughout history, from Dante in the 14th century to modern works. It explains how views on using myths in literature changed over time, from being frowned upon in early Christianity to being embraced during the Renaissance and onward. The document also notes growing interest in Native American mythology and trends involving fairy tales.
This research paper would like to examine Marlow’s frailty as a narrator, his ethnocentricity and color consciousness and inability to comprehend inscrutable Africa that leads the author to support the colonizers against the Africans and how his approach is shared by Conrad as well. Conrad, in the colonial novel, Heart of Darkness has biasness for European colonialism, though the biasness is not so much conspicuous but ostensible, covertly and allusively maintained throughout. This study aims to focus upon Conrad’s treatment of and race and racial conflicts. It also would like to explain the concept of race through applying the critical comments made by different critics and scholars.
Women writers of the romantic period finale: Rewriting the Masculine WorldJoshua Gnana Raj P
The Romantic Period was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement, it is called such since, the period brought in many changes which include the rapid spread of the ownership of clocks with minute hands throughout the late nineteenth-century. This period made lawyers to condemn old sundials as childish. It was also the time when culturally as well as socially, termed as an age of transition from gothic writing characteristics of the second half of the eighteenth-century with a particular appeal to a new generation of women readers, to a more patriarchal aesthetics in which the popular styles of earlier ages were dismissed as unmanly.
This was the period in which men writers flourished. Yet there are many female writers who never had their fame glow as their male counterparts. This paper will deal with the hidden female writers of the Romantic era. This paper will also mainly focus on the rethinking of the individual and the Romantic society at large.
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" and its purpose, form, and influences. It aims to convey a sense of emptiness and aimlessness in the soul and civilization after World War I. Eliot uses techniques like the "mythical method" and references works like Jung's archetypes, Weston's "From Ritual to Romance", and Frazer's "The Golden Bough" to structure the fragmented experience of modernity. The form captures 1920s techniques like collage, film, and jazz to represent the dissonance of modern life.
The novel emerged in the 18th century, influenced by previous fictions but distinct in focusing on middle-class values and everyday life rather than aristocracy or the supernatural. Key to its development were rising literacy, print technology, notions of history/progress, capitalism, individualism, secularism, Protestant values, urbanization, women's rights, and increased mobility through industry, transport, and imperialism. The novel was well-suited to depicting individuals rather than groups and linear development rather than complexity. Main types included epistolary, picaresque, anti-novel, gothic, historical, satirical, and postmodernist, with magic realism drawing on earlier influences like Tristram Shand
A.E. Housman was an English poet and scholar born in 1859 in Worcestershire, England. He wrote two poetry volumes, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems, the latter of which was successful. As a scholar he is respected for his annotated editions of Roman astronomer Marcus Manilius. Housman died in 1936 in Cambridge, England.
This document summarizes a class lecture on modernism that included discussion of the poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), the short story "Odour of Chrysanthemums" by D.H. Lawrence, and an author presentation on James Joyce.
The class discussed H.D.'s life and how her work exemplified themes of literary modernism like breaking from Victorian norms. It also analyzed Lawrence's short story through discussion questions about its use of symbols like chrysanthemums and themes of misunderstanding between spouses. Finally, it introduced Joyce as an important modernist writer known for works like Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Fin
This document summarizes and analyzes the Kurdish nation and nationalist movement. It begins by discussing the author's experience in Indonesia where he noticed a lack of strong national identity and instead found stronger local and religious identities. It then discusses theories that the modern nation is often a constructed identity promoted by elites rather than an organic popular identity. The document focuses on the Kurdish people, who number around 30 million but lack an independent state, being divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. It analyzes Kurdish nationalist uprisings and struggles for autonomy or independence. The document proposes examining the nation as both imagined through identity and performed through nationalism to understand cases like the Kurdish nation.
ORIENTATIONS AND ORIENTALISM THE GOVERNOR SIR RONALD STORRSislamicjerusalem
This article analyzes Sir Ronald Storrs, the first governor of Jerusalem, through the lens of Orientalism. It summarizes that Storrs was a product of British imperialism and held many stereotypical views of Arabs influenced by Orientalism. The article examines Storrs' background, education, career as governor of Jerusalem and Cyprus, and his book "Orientations" to argue he propagated British colonial views that justified domination of the Middle East. While views differ on Storrs' stance on Zionism, the article uses his writing to show he reflected common British prejudices against Arabs and an exaggerated view of Western classical texts in his governance.
This document provides a summary and analysis of Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent. It discusses how the novel initially seems to construct a divide between Eastern and Western national identities, representing Russia as the Orientalized East opposed to the Western identity of Britain. However, Conrad also begins to challenge and deconstruct this binary. The Russian character Vladimir both reinforces Eastern stereotypes but also mimics the West in unsettling ways, complicating the simple East/West dichotomy. Ultimately, Conrad's novel questions fixed notions of national and regional identity by showing their instability and the ways in which Eastern and Western identities can blend together.
This document is a comparative literature assignment submitted by Fatima Gul that discusses the politicization of non-Western literature and rejection of the formalist approach. It provides examples of how Western civilization has presented an inaccurate portrayal of non-Western cultures and politicized their literature. It discusses several non-Western writers like Chinua Achebe and Frantz Fanon who highlighted the negative impacts of Western colonialism and how it disrupted traditional ways of life in Africa and presented the colonized people in a demeaning light. The assignment argues that the formalist approach to studying literature fails to acknowledge the deeper themes, ideas and philosophies in non-Western works and asserts the need to consider the socio-historical contexts.
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LOUIS MASSIGNON AND JERUSALEM: A PERSONAL POINT OF VIEWislamicjerusalem
1. Louis Massignon was a 20th century French scholar of Islam who made numerous visits to Jerusalem between 1917-1953 and wrote extensively about the city.
2. During his first visit in 1917 with T.E. Lawrence, he reflected on the tensions between justice and politics regarding the British occupation of the city.
3. In subsequent visits in the 1920s, he wrote two influential works analyzing Zionism in relation to Islam and the Arab world, advocating for understanding between the two groups regarding their shared connection to Jerusalem.
4. Massignon continued visiting Jerusalem sporadically in later decades as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intensified, remaining a vocal critic of political decisions like the 1947 UN
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The relationship between literature and societyTshen Tashi
The document discusses the relationship between English literature and society from different literary periods in English history. It explores how works from each period reflected aspects of the corresponding society, such as its religion, government structure, views of nature, and lifestyle. For example, Anglo-Saxon works focused on morality through bloodshed while Medieval literature dealt with themes of sin. The document also examines how major historical events like the Industrial Revolution influenced Victorian literature and society. Overall, it analyzes how literature both shaped and was shaped by the societies it emerged from.
This summary provides the key details about the document in 3 sentences:
The document reviews several nonfiction books, including The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot about the source of the first immortal human cell line and its impact on the family of Henrietta Lacks. It also reviews The End of Work as You Know It by Milo Sindell and Thuy Sindell about redefining work and finding meaning and fulfillment in one's career. Finally, it briefly summarizes Finding Frida Kahlo by Barbara Levine about Levine's discovery of a large collection of personal items believed to have belonged to artist Frida Kahlo.
Salman rushdie and the perforated sheet - Canan Kaplan-
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist known for works like Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. Midnight's Children, which won the Booker Prize, tells the story of India's independence through the life of Saleem Sinai, who is born at midnight on August 15th, 1947. Rushdie's fiction explores the connections between Eastern and Western societies and blends magical realism with historical events. However, The Satanic Verses provoked protests from Muslims around the world for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. Rushdie's works emphasize hybrid and postmodern identities over singular notions of culture and history.
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In linguistics, X-bar theory is a model of phrase-structure grammar and a theory of syntactic category formation[1] that was first proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1970[2] reformulating the ideas of Zellig Harris (1951,[3]) and further developed by Ray Jackendoff (1974,[4] 1977a,[5] 1977b[6]), along the lines of the theory of generative grammar put forth in the 1950s by Chomsky.[7][8] It attempts to capture the structure of phrasal categories with a single uniform structure called the X-bar schema, basing itself on the assumption that any phrase in natural language is an XP (X phrase) that is headed by a given syntactic category X. It played a significant role in resolving issues that phrase structure rules had, representative of which is the proliferation of grammatical rules, which is against the thesis of generative grammar.
In linguistics, X-bar theory is a model of phrase-structure grammar and a theory of syntactic category formation[1] that was first proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1970[2] reformulating the ideas of Zellig Harris (1951,[3]) and further developed by Ray Jackendoff (1974,[4] 1977a,[5] 1977b[6]), along the lines of the theory of generative grammar put forth in the 1950s by Chomsky.[7][8] It attempts to capture the structure of phrasal categories with a single uniform structure called the X-bar schema, basing itself on the assumption that any phrase in natural language is an XP (X phrase) that is headed by a given syntactic category X. It played a significant role in resolving issues that phrase structure rules had, representative of which is the proliferation of grammatical rules, which is against the thesis of generative grammar.
X-bar theory was incorporated into both transformational and nontransformational theories of syntax, including government and binding theory (GB), generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG), lexical-functional grammar (LFG), and head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG).[9] Although recent work in the minimalist program has largely abandoned X-bar schemata in favor of bare phrase structure approaches, the theory's central assumptions are still valid in different forms and terms in many theories of minimalist syntax.
1. This document provides an overview of ecocriticism, new historicism, and diaspora as presented in a literary theory and criticism course submission.
2. It defines ecocriticism as the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment, tracing the term back to the 1970s, and discusses related approaches like green studies.
3. New historicism is outlined as seeing text and history as mutually informing, with culture as raw material and power structures like class and media shaping texts.
4. Diaspora is defined as the dispersion of a population from its original homeland, whether through events like the Jewish diaspora in Europe or ongoing attachments to homelands while living abroad.
The document provides an overview of Pakistani literature in English from the pre-partition era through the 1960s. It discusses how early literature highlighted the struggles for independence and nationalism, as well as the atrocities under British rule. Major pre-partition writers like Ahmed Ali portrayed the themes of lost freedom and nationalism. Post-partition literature dealt with the socio-political problems facing Pakistani society. Literature in the 1950s expressed disillusionment and supported democratic ideals. Prominent writers during this time included Saadat Hassan Manto and Zaib-un-Nisa Hamidullah. The 1960s saw literature address issues like political and social upheaval, corruption, cultural neglect, and ethnic/gender discrimination in Pakistan.
Milton’s Samson Agonistes: A Renaissance Image of Man - مسرحية شمشون اقونيستس...Al Baha University
جون ميلتون يعتبر شاعرا اكثر من كونه كاتب مسرحي، لهذا السبب فان شعره قد اخذ حيزا كبيرا من الدراسة والتمحيص والتحليل و/أو النقد لكن لم يعطى ذلك الاهتمام في مسرحيته، تحاول هذه الدراسة إلقاء الضوء على "سامسون اقونيستس" لميلتون كمسرحية أكثر من كونها قصيدة شعرية، الدراسة تستخدم النهج التحليلي والفلسفي والأدبي لأحد أبرز الشخصيات الأدبية في العصر التطهيري البيروتاني، جون ميلتون ومسرحيته "سامسون اقونيستس" كصورة أو مفهوم رجل عصر النهضة التي كثيرون ينسبون ارتباط ميلتون كأخر شخصية ادبية لهذا العصر، يستهل البحث بموضوع المعرفة – سواء المعرفة السماوية أو البشرية (من وجهة نظر ميلتون) وردة فعل الانسان فيما يتعلق بتلك المعرفة، الدراسة تحاول في هدفها ان تؤكد وتبرز النقائص المألوفة و اللافتة للنظر مثل المعاناة وسوء الحظ، الزوجة الغير ملائمة، المهمة الفاشلة والورطة بين كل من ميلتون وبطل مسرحيته، "سامسون".
الدراسة هي عبارة عن عملية تتبعيه لعصر "ميلتون" وأفكاره المعكوسة في مسرحيته " سامسون اقونيستس"، تحاول الدراسة إلقاء الضوء على كيفية توظيف ميلتون تقنياته الأدبية النابغة في المسرحية الشعرية قيد الدراسة، تستهل الدراسة بمقدمة متبوعة بالفقرة الأولى مفهوم رجل عصر النهضة ثم تتطرق الى معاينة المعاناة وسوء الحظ وبعد ذلك يتبع بوصف لمرئيات ميلتون نفسه حول المرأة كنتيجة لبغضه زوجته التي لم تعش معه، في القسم التالي تتبع تحليلي لمفاهيم المهمة الفاشلة والمأزق المصور في ذهن ميلتون عن نفسه وبطل مسرحيته.
John Milton is a poet more than a dramatist, hence, his poetry is plentifully studied, examined, analyzed, and/or criticized but his drama is sparsely done. This study tries to shed light on Samson Agonistes as drama. It is an analytical, philosophical and literary approach of one important figure in The Puritan age, John Milton, and his play as an image of the Renaissance man. The study takes up the theme of knowledge—divine or human knowledge and man’s reaction apropos that. The current study tries in its aim to highlight the frequent remarkable demerits such as misfortunes and suffering, unfortunate wife, unsuccessful mission, and plight between Milton and Samson. It is a pursuing process for Milton's age, and thoughts reflected in his work, Samson Agonistes. The study also attempts to shed light on how Milton employs his genius literary techniques in this verse play. The study starts with an introduction followed by the concept of the Renaissance man. The paper deals with views of misfortunes and suffering thereafter, it depicts Milton’s views concerning women as a result of his hatred to his wife. The research pursues analytically the concepts of ineffective mission, and plight imaged by Milton about himself and Samson, his main character of the play.
- The document discusses Edward Said's theory of postcolonialism, which examines how Western colonialism shaped views of colonized regions and peoples.
- Said argued that Western thinkers constructed a false image of the "Orient" as primitive and uncivilized, contrasting it with the advanced West in order to justify colonial domination. The powerful colonizers imposed their language and culture while ignoring native cultures.
- According to Said, the consequences of colonialism like chaos, conflict and corruption persist in former colonies. His work Orientalism criticized how Western texts stereotyped diverse Eastern cultures and depicted them as inferior to rational Western civilization.
1) The document discusses a postcolonial reading of the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which retells the story of Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre from the perspective of a Creole woman.
2) It analyzes Rhys' portrayal of characters like Mr. Rochester and his "orientalist" attitudes towards Creole people and culture, seen through his interactions with Antoinette.
3) It examines how Rhys aims to give voice to the silenced "other" and disrupt the imperialist perspectives of the original novel, though some critics argue she also perpetuates stereotypes about native West Indians.
Illuminating the darkness blacks and north africans in islam by habeeb akandedocsforu
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This document summarizes an article about Aldous Huxley and anti-Semitism. The article examines Huxley's depiction of Jews and use of anti-Semitic stereotypes in his fiction and non-fiction works from the 1920s to 1930s. It finds that while Huxley was not a systematic anti-Semite, he did utilize common anti-Semitic tropes of the time, including portraying Jews as a threat to the English countryside, disloyal during WWI, sexual rivals to gentiles, and possessing a strange otherness. The article analyzes specific examples from Huxley's novels and stories and evaluates them in their historical context. It concludes that Huxley was knowledgeable
Interrogating Hybridity- Reading in Jean Rhys’s 'Wide Sargasso Sea'Hina Parmar
In Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea," the theme of interrogating hybridity is central, examining the complexities of identity, colonialism, and cultural blending. The novel scrutinizes the tensions and conflicts that arise from the mixing of different cultures and backgrounds, particularly through the lens of Antoinette Cosway, exploring the struggles of being caught between multiple worlds and identities.
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The image of the orient in samuel johnson's rasselas (1759)
1. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org
ISSN 2224-5766(Paper) ISSN 2225-0484(Online)
Vol.2, No.5, 2012
The Image of the Orient in Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759)
Abdulhafeth Ali Khrisat
Department of English, Faculty of Sciences and Arts/Khulais
King Abdulaziz University P.O. Box 80200 Jeddah 21589 Saudi Arabia
Telephone: + 966-545 827 965 E-mail: drkhrisat@gmail.com
Abstract: This paper aims to study Samuel Johnson's Rasselas: Prince of Abyssina (1759) and how Johnson portrays
the Orient. By employing the narrator and other characters like Imlac, Rasselas, and Pekuah, Johnson presents a
negative image of the Arabs and the Muslims, emphasizing that they are inferiors, whereas the Westerners are
superior. Johnson builds his attitude upon the concepts, stereotypes and vocabulary established by the English writers
in the Christian tradition. According to Johnson, the Arabs are "sons of Ishmael": they are infidels, murderous, and
terrorists, waging war against the civilized nations. Moreover, the social system is patriarchal in the Muslim and Arab
life and their system of governments is unstable, despotic and cruel. In fact, Johnson has never been to any Arab or
Muslim country. All he knows is merely based upon his very limited knowledge about the Arabs as a second hand
from Western translations.
Key Words: Johnson, Rasselas, Orient, Arabs, Muslims, English Novel.
1. Introduction
English writers focus on the culture of the Orient and reveal their attitudes in their works from the Middle
Ages through the eighteenth century culminating in the twenty-first century. The Arabs and the Muslims, say
Shadid and Konnigsveld (2002), are presented in a negative image created by the Western media (188). The Arabs
and the Muslims are aware of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda in the Western writings and media.
Halliday (1995) calls this "anti-Muslim": the hostility of the West toward Muslims presenting Islam as a religion that
"encompasses racist, xenophobia and stereotypical elements" (160). In his introduction to Covering Islam, Said
(1981) states that the "norms of rational sense are suspended when discussions of Islam are carried on" (xix).
2. Orientalists and the Orient
Said (1978) explains in Orientalism that the Orient described by European Orientalists is nothing but an
invention of their own. The Orient has always been a place of romance inhabited by exotic beings and full of
remarkable experiences and haunting memories. It is one of Europe’s “deepest and most recurring images of the
other.” In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe or the West as its contrasting image, idea, personality’s
experience” (1).
In his analysis of the attitudes of a series of writers such as Ernest Renan, Benjamin Disraeli, Louis
Massingnon, H. A. R. Gibb and Bernard Lewis, Said emphasizes that these writers' reporting about the Orient is
racist, ethnocentric and inaccurate. Moreover, Said (1994) states that such works as Rahpael Patai’s The Arab Mind,
David Pryce Jones’s The Closed Circle, Bernard Lewis’s The Political Language of Islam, Patricia Crone and
Michael Cooke’s Hagarism “can be described as being free from hostility to the Arab’s collective aspiration to
break out of the historical determinism developed in colonial perspective” (260). Said also describes how the
American media represents Arabs and Muslims: They “only understand force; brutality and violence are part of the
Arab civilization; Islam is intolerant, segregationist, ‘medieval’ fanatic, cruel, anti-women religion” (295).
Shadid and Knonnigsveld (1994) support this negative portrayal of the Arabs and Muslims as being
religiously motivated by the Christian theologians in the Near East and Islamic Spain. These religious theologians
concern is to raise a barrier against any attraction of Islam for their ruling elite. Besides, they attempt to deliver
convincing evidence of the superiority of Christianity to Islam (18).
Hippler and Lueg (1995) remark that the West presents Islam with a negative image.
We [the West] invent an Islam that suits us, that best fulfills our politico-psychological
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needs. This is exactly how we arrive at a clean separation between ‘us’ and ‘them’
[the others], between inside and outside that are never supposed to meet and we must
succeed in fencing and fortifying our own Western identity. Similarities and parallels
between cultures would only disturb the image, because it would mean recognizing
ourselves in the Other and blur the distinction (24).
3. Johnson's portrait of the Orient
Using his imaginative narrative, Samuel Johnson presents a portrait of the Orient in his Rasselas: Prince of
Abbysina (1759). By employing a narrator like Imlac, Johnson's mouthpiece, and a character like Rasselas, Prince of
Abbysina, Johnson confirms what he believes as the traits of Arabs and Muslims: "sons of Ishmael," infidels,
aggressors who initiate wars, untrusted, patriarchal, ignorant, and inferior to the Europeans in knowledge and system
of governments. According to Johnson, the Arabs and the Muslims have nothing to contribute to civilization.
3. 1. English writers portrait of the Orient
The Western writers in general and the English ones in particular, since the Middle Ages, have believed in the
superiority of their religion and culture and the inferiority of Islamic religion, Arabic culture and Arabs in general.
These writers create a tradition through a distorted vision of Islam as a false religion and Arabs as "Saracens" and
infidels. Jones (1942) points that "usually writers drew on obscure or second-hand sources, and the result is a
combination of a little fact and much imagination of a very biased character" (202). Jones believes that "The
Medieval poet's conception of Islam was based on ecclesiastical authorities, whose interest was to disfigure beliefs
and customs of the infidels" (203). In the eighteenth century English fiction, this negative portrayal is depicted in
the gothic novels of William Beckford's Vathek and a scene with a Turkish merchant in Mary Shelley's Frankstein
and Lady Mary Worthy Montaigne's Letters.
3. 2. Johnson's Rasselas: its origin
Johnson's Rasselas: The Prince of Abbysina (1759), like most oriental works by Johnson's contemporaries,
includes ideas and attitudes as the belief in the superiority of the West and the inferiority of Arabic beliefs. In fact,
Johnson's knowledge about Arabs and Muslims was gathered from various translations. Johnson himself
acknowledges that "many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, all gain credit in the word"
(Boswell, III: 55). Johnson once tells Boswell that there are "two objects of curiosity _ the Christian world and the
Mohametan world" (IV:29). Johnson's attitude toward Arabs and Muslims can be understood from his stand
regarding the issue of conversion: Johnson believes that the "Christian who converts to Islam is like a person who
exchanges truth for error" (20).
In his publication of an unabridged translation of Voyage to Abbysina by Jesuit Father Lobo, Johnson
notes:
The Portuguese traveler . . . has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities or
incredible fictions; whenever he relates, whether true or not, it at least probable. . . He
appears . . . to have copied nature form the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his
imagination. He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes; his crocodiles
devour their prey without deafening the neighboring inhabitants (quoted in History of
Rasselas, edited by D. J. Enright, 10-11). (1)
Johnson also claims that the reader will discover in Lobo’s book: “What will always be discovered by a diligent and
impartial inquirer, whatever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion
and reason” (quoted in Enright,11). Johnson requires such a work should have incredible events and fantasies.
These fantasies can be found in Eastern material. In a letter on 23 March 1759, Johnson mentions that his "little
story book as soon to be published." (Letters, 122)
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3.3 Rasselas' theme
In his Rasselas, Johnson traces the character’s failed quest for happiness and finds out what “is” in the world
is certainly not ‘Right’”. Although this is the obvious moral of the narrative, there is at the heart of Johnson’s work
a critique of European exploitation of other cultures, particularly Arabic one. In the eighteenth century, a portrayal of
the past figures is emphasized in order to entertain the readers.
3.4. Rasselas' setting
Rasselas opens with a description of the customs of Abyssina emperors who confine their sons and daughters
in the Happy Valley. This valley is surrounded by mountains where is only one passage that it could be entered, an
cavern which passed under rock: “The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which
opened into the valley was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man
could without the help of engines, open or shut them” (Rasselas, 39). In this seemingly earthly paradise, “All the
diversities of the world were brought together, the blessings of nature were collected, and its evils extracted and
excluded” (40). All the inhabitants of this valley are satisfied except Rasselas.
3.5. Rasselas' philosophy:
Rasselas, the Abyssina prince, meditates on man and the rest of the creatures in the universe: “What makes
the difference between man and the rest of the animal creation?” At the beginning, he sees his life in this Valley: “I
am like him”, but later he realizes that man has “some desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before he
can be happy” (Rasselas, 42, 43). Rasselas admires his intellectual powers by telling his old instructor: “I have
already enjoyed two much; give one something to desire.” The old instructor says, “If you had seen the miseries of
the world, you would know how to value your present state.” The prince answers, “You have given me something
to desire; I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness” (45).
4. Rasselas' view of Muslims and Arabs
During their entrance to Cairo, Rasselas and Nekayah are able to come into closer contact with nations.
Rasselas is led at first to believe that all are happy. Imlac explains that in reality unhappiness is universal; people
appear to be happy in order to be sociable: “We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found
and each believes it possessed by others” (Rasselas 77). In examining the life of those who are in a position of
power, Rasselas discovers that even the position of Bassa of Egypt is not quite secure. In his observation over the
political system, Rasselas notes that “at the Court of Bassa,” the governor of Egyptian Province of the Turkish
empire “has the power to extend his edicts to a whole kingdom” (90). Rasselas' first impression is that he is pleased
to find “the joy of thousands, all made happy by wise administration.” Later he finds out that all members of the
government hate each other and live in “a continual succession of plots and defectors, stratagems and escapes,
faction and treachery.” A large number of those people, discovers Rasselas, are spies sent by the Turkish Sultan to
surround the Bassa and “to watch and report” the Bassa’s conduct (90).
Eventually, when the letters arrive at the Sultan’s palace, “the Bassa was carried in chains to Constantinople
and his name was mentioned no more” (91). Rasselas describes the political situation whether in the Arab
provinces or in the Turkish capital of Constantinople as unstable, staggering and uncertain. Moreover, the Arab and
the Muslim rulers, both the Sultan and the Bassa, are cruel and despotic. The result is: “In a short time, the second
Bassa was deposed” (91). The Sultan, who had advanced him, was murdered by the Janisaries [Turkish soldiers,
originally Sultan’s guard] and his successor had other views and different favorites” (91).
Arabs and Muslims, according to Johnson, practice oppression: “Oppression is, in the Abyssina dominions,
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neither frequent nor tolerated” (92), Imlac tells Rasselas, Like Western writers; Johnson portrays the Oriental
monarch as unstable and despotic governor. The English people have the advantage of constitutional monarchy
whereas the Arabs have deficiency in their governmental system: therefore, they must look for a sound and rational
system such as the one used by the Westerners. According to Johnson, the English people are superior whereas the
Arab and Muslim systems are inferior. The Arabs and Muslims could learn from the West; at the same time, the
Westerners have to teach and help the Orientals overcome their problems:”Christianity [is] the highest perfection of
humanity” (Boswell, II: 27) and “the most beneficial system” which give “light and certainty” to all mankind
(Boswell, I: 455). The duty of the Europeans, particularly the English, is to rescue the Orientals from the “darkness
and doubt” in which they exist. Undoubtedly, this is the imperialist spirit adopted by many European nations.
4.1. Johnson's Englishness versus the Orient
Johnson holds a low regard for the “others”. The issue of the “Other” is a significant one in literature.
Apparently the “Other” seems to be the opposite of the oneself. Understanding how societies and groups of people
exclude and include whomever they wish is the process that allows "us" to identify the “Other”. Weems (2007)
states that “otherness” is present within the self as well as attached to particular bodies that get labeled and marked as
“the other”. During the 15th and 16th centuries, English people were thinking about “international community of
Christendom" (Greenblatt, 2006, 466). The person or the groups of people who don’t belong to his slogan are
considered as aliens even the Jews had been excluded from this attitude.
Thus the English believe that the European or the English culture is superior to the “other”, specifically
Oriental culture. Johnson glorifies the West through the character of Imlac when Imlac resides for three years in
Palestine. He has conferred with great number of the northern and western nations of Europe: “the nations which are
now in position of all power and all knowledge; whose armies are irresistible, and whose fleets command the
remotest parts of the globe.” This means that the Arabs as well as the Muslims neglect “all knowledge” and they
are militarily weak and cannot stand the challenge of the Western nations who have all knowledge which “will
predominate over ignorance as man governs the other animals” (Rasselas, 65, 63). This narration about the
superiority of the Western nations is associated with an image of the Arabs who are always associated with having
camels. Even the most successful merchants, says Imlac, talk about trading in camels. Imlac tells Rasselas about
successful business life in the Orient:
We laid our money upon camels, concealed in bales of cheap goods, and travelled to the shore
of the Red Sea. When I cast my eyes on the expense of waters, my heart bounded like that of
a prisoner escaped. I felt an inextinguishable curiosity kindle in my mind, and resolved to
snatch this opportunity of seeing the manners of other nations, and of learning sciences
unknown in Abyssina (Rasselas, 57).
According to Imlac, the Arabs are “pastoral and warlike; carrying on perpetual, aimless war with mankind.
They are just Bedouins moving from one place to another, and whose wealth is only flocks of camels.” “Through
all ages,” says Imlac, “they have carried an hereditary war with all mankind (119).” Johnson’s narrator, Imlac,
seems to have written this after Sept. 11, 2001. The Arabs and the Muslims are viewed as terrorists. They initiate
war against all nations for the sake of terrorism. This biased description is embodied in the compassion between
Arabia and Persia where “Persia, with its civilization and people,” impress the narrator.
The Western world views the Muslims and especially the Arabs as aggressors initiating wars. Johnson refers
to the Arabs as “sons of Ishmael” (Rasselas, 120). This reference by Johnson reiterates the Bible’s concept of the
Arabs.
And the Angel of the Lord said to her [Hagar]. I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it
shall not be numbered or multitude. And the Angel of the Lord said unto her. Behold,
thou art with child, and shalt bear a son and shall call his name Ishmael; because the Lord
hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man,
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and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwelt in the presence of all his brethren.
(The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version; International Society Bible, 1992).
This concept of the Arabs and the Muslims trying to spread terrorism among other nations makes it necessary for all
these nations to be united to confront these “terrorists”. (2) In fact, Johnson has been known as a writer committed
to the cause of Christian morality. In his descriptions of the Arabs and the Muslims in Rasselas, he follows the
biblical tradition in presenting them as cruel, aggressive and murderers. Telling Pekuah, the Arab Chief says, “My
occupation is war” (Rasselas, 122). Johnson presents the Arabs as belligerent and through all ages, they have
obtained by sword and plunder all they need to make a living. Through the characters of Imlac, who knows Arabs
and their behavior, Nekaya and Pekuah, Johnson gives an account of the people, their religion and culture. These
accounts are limited by second hand knowledge of their creator, Johnson himself. These characters observations
and comments are no independent because they are biased by their creator.
Johnson’s Imlac sees that some European nations send pilgrims to Palestine although “for many numerous
and learned sects in Europe, concur to censure pilgrimage as superstitious or deride it as ridiculous.” (Rasselas, 64).
In a response to Prince Rasselas question whether the European nations are “happier than we,” Imlac says that
“knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleasure . . . Ignorance is mere privation” (65). Imlac also begins to
enumerate the many advantages that the Europeans have comparing them with “us” [the Arabs and the Muslims].
The “other” has all the advantages which the “self” lacks: curing of wounds on their side where “we” languish and
perish. They use engines for their works whereas “we” perform manually; they also have easy communication
means while "we" don’t. Even their possessions are more secure (65). Prince Rasselas comments by saying that
they are “surely happy because they have all these conveniences.” Imlac reminds Rasselas that he hasn’t found
happiness in the Happy Valley.
4.2. Johnson's attitude toward Arabic poetry
Regarding art, Imlac adventures in Arabia leaves him an impression that “poetry was considered as the
highest learning and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the Angelic
Nature” (60). In his view, not only Arabic poetry but all other nations’ poetry has this quality: It is everywhere he
goes. Imlac confirms that he has read the poets of Persia and Arabia: “I was desirous to add my name to this
illustration fraternity. I read all the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that
suspended in the mosque of Mecca” (61). Despite his prejudiced attitudes toward Arabs, Imlac assures that he has
read these pre-Islamic masterpieces of poetry known as Mu’allaqat displayed on the walls of Mecca. Johnson
exaggerates in regard to his knowledge about these poetic masterpieces. In fact, Johnson has never been to the East
or to any Arab country besides he has never learnt or spoken Arabic.
4.3. Johnson and Arab Egyptians
During their visit to the pyramids of Egypt, Rasselas and his companions have left Pekuah outside as she is
afraid of going with them; they find out that Pekuah has been abducted by a troop of Arabs. After seven months, a
messenger coming from the borders of Nubia brings the news that Pekuah is in the hands of an Arab Chief who is
willing to restore her, with her two attendants for two hundred ounces of gold. The narrative emphasizes that this
Arab can't be trusted, as Imlac says, and the messenger gives an insight into the Arab Chief's character: a man both
"money-hungry and ruthless." Moreover, the narrative notes that Imlac isn't confident and more "doubtful of the
Arab's faith who might, if he were too liberally trusted, detain at once the money and the captives" (Rasselas, 117).
Imlac also thinks that it is dangerous to put them in the power of the Arab: Muslims are not to be trusted. For Imlac,
it is the "Other". Therefore, Imlac suggests that Pekuah should be "conducted by ten horsemen to the monastery of
St. Anthony, (3) where she should be met by the same number and the ransom should be paid" (117-18). However,
Imlac acknowledges that the Arab observe "the laws of hospitality with great exactness to those who put themselves
into his power" (118). This contradictory attitude of praising and criticizing the Arabs reveals the narrator's
confusion and his biased views.
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Throughout the characters and their narratives in Rasselas, Johnson has presented a negative image of the
Orient. When Pekuah tells of her adventures, she says of the Arabs, "I was in the hands of robbers and savages, and
had no reason to suppose that their pity was more than justice, or that would forbear the gratification of any ardor of
desire, or experience of cruelty" (119). This description of the Arabs is much like Mary Rowlandson's who has
described the Native Indians of America when she has been captured during King Philip's War in 1675.
4.4. Johnson and Arab women
In Rasselas, Johnson also describes Arab women. His description is influenced by the English stereotype of
Arabs as lascivious people who treat women as pleasure objects. The question is to be raised, where does Johnson
get this view? Has Johnson lived sometime in the East? Has Johnson read what has been written about Arab
women by Arabs and Muslims? In fact, Johnson's view is merely based upon his limited knowledge of the Arabs
from Western translations. Telling her brother Prince Rasselas about her observations of many families in Egypt,
Nekayah finds:
their thoughts narrow, their wishes low, their merriment often artificial. . . They were
always jealous of the beauty of each other . . . Many were in love with triflers like
themselves, and many fancied that they were in love when in truth they were only idle. . .
Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient; everything floated in their mind
unconnected with the past or future (Rasselas, 91).
Pekuah, however, acknowledged that she has no interest in the submissive Arab women as they spend part of their
time uselessly watching the progress of light bodies that floated on the river, and part in making various forms into
which clouds broke into the sky. (92)
Furthermore, Pekuah describes the Arab women with so much prejudice that they are presented as knowing
nothing, jus imprisoned in their homes, weaving and cooking and doing all housework: "They ran from room to
room as a bird hop from wire to wire in his cage. They danced for the sake of motion, as lambs frisk in a meadow"
(124). She adds: "Their business was only needle work, in which I and my maids sometimes helped them" (124).
The narrator concludes that Nekayah plays with the Arab girls as with "inoffensive animals" (92). Moreover, the
Arab Chief finds great satisfaction in talking to Pekuah teaching her about the stars. He finds in her company the
kind of intellectual, perhaps even essential gratification that the Arab women cannot give. The narrative remarks that
the Arab Chief finds himself unable to share the interests with any of his women. The Arab is also presented as
someone who doesn't appreciate beauty, a man of the senses. His main interest is in the material not in the esthetic
or intellectual: "But to a man like the Arab such beauty was only a flower casually plucked and carelessly thrown
away" (125). The Arab and the Muslim society are described as patriarchal, paying the least attention to women.
This view is stated by the character of Pekuah who talks about the Arab Chief: "When they [women] were playing
about him, he looked on them with inattentive superiority" (12).
5. Conclusion
Johnson's Rasselas (1759) presents the negative image of the Arabs and the Muslims. Johnson's view
reflects the attitude of many Western writers toward the Orient. Johnson once writes: "Christianity is the highest
perfection of humanity" (Boswell, vol.2, 27). In his contrast between Christianity and Islam, Johnson remarks that
"only one Religion [Christianity] can be true because the Bible displays strong foundation of righteousness with
more solid evidence (Boswell, vol. 1, (398). Therefore, Johnson's attitude toward Arabs should not be viewed as
shocking or disappointing. Like many attitudes of the Westerners and Americans today whether they are writers,
actors or scholars, it is normal. Johnson believes that the Orient, specifically the Arabs and the Muslims, have
nothing to contribute to civilization. In brief, Rasselas gives Johnson an opportunity to exercise his hostility and
prejudice upon Arabs and Muslims. For Johnson, the Orient live in "darkness and doubt" and therefore the duty of
the Europeans, especially the English, is to rescue them. Johnson's concept is similar to the Western and American
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nations' concept categorizing Arabs and Muslims as "terrorists" who are declaring war against civilized nations.
Contemporary Western and American policy is in accord with Johnson's eighteenth century view in Rasselas where
he calls for the Europeans, particularly the English, to teach the "infidels" wisdom and knowledge. Moreover, today's
strategy of the West led by America is to spread democracy, human rights and liberation of women even though it
needs raging an irrationalized war upon those peaceful nations. Although contacts and mutual knowledge between
the Arabs and the Muslims on one hand and the Westerners on the other has taken place through Crusades and the
Ottomans, Johnson's view of the Arabs and the Muslims is that they are a threat to Christendom. Finally, Johnson's
image of the Orient is presented in stereotyped ways.
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Chapin, Chester F (1968). The religious thought of Samuel Johnson. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of
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Voyage to abyssinia. PMLA 70 (5), (Dec.), 1059-67.
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Gold, Joel J (Ed.) (1985). The Yale introduction of the works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. XV. New Haven: Yale
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Hippler, J and Luey A (Eds.) (1995). The next threat: western perceptions of Islam. London: Pluto Press.
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Said, Edward. (1979). Orientalism. 2nd Edition. New York: Pantheon Vintage.
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Notes
1. Johnson's voyage is a translation of Joachim Le Grand's 1728 version of the Voyage which itself a French
translation of Jerome Lobo's Portuguese original Logo's Itinerario, relating the Jesuits travels from 1621 to
1635 beginning in the West Coast of India to Goa and after several delays ending in Ethiopia on a mission
to convert Abyssinia Christians from their national church to Roman Catholicism (see Douglas, 1955,
1059-67). From the beginnings of Portuguese-Abyssinia relations, tensions rising from the cultural and
religious differences shaped the churches' policies towards one another. Gold points out that the
Europeans were "familiar with the runners of the isolated Christian Kingdom ruled by Prester John [who]
had often speculated about Abyssinia, but the country was virtually known to Western travelers before the
arrival of the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century" (xxvii, see Gold's Introduction to The Yale Edition
of The Works of Samuel Johnson, 1985, vol. XV: xxvii).
2. During the Jesuits missions to Abyssinia in the 17th century, Europe was expecting the religious schism of the
Reformation. The missions were ostensibly in response to initiating threat of Islamic forces surrounding Abyssinia
(see Samuel Johnson's Voyage to Abyssinia, ed. Joel Gold. Vol. XV, 1985). Europe views the Arabs and the Muslims as
hostile. This hostile attitude is still now repeated particularly after Sept. 11, 2001. According to Shadid and
Konnigsveld (2000), the Western media contribute to the creation of a negative image of the Muslims and Islam.
Hafez, et al., ed.,(2000) note that the German scientists until recently disregarded present-day developments in the
Islamic world. Most specialists and scientists specialized in Oriental and Islamic studies seldom show any initiatives to
improve the relationship between East and West.
3. St. Anthohy, the founder of Christian Monastism, was born in Egypt C.250 and was famous for his temptations; the
monastery Der Mar Antonius is near the Red Sea.
About the Author: Abdulhafeth Khrisat earned his M.A. in English from Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky,
USA and Ph.D. from University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is currently teaching English literature at
the Dept. of English, Faculty of Sciences and Arts/Khulais, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah , Saudi Arabia. He
taught at Morehead State University, University of Qatar, Qatar, Mu'tah University and Middle East University for
Graduate Studies in Jordan. He supervised a number of M.A. theses dealing with English and American literatures.
His publications include more than 20 articles in refereed journals in Italy, USA, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. He also
published three textbooks with the collaborating author, Professor Mahmoud Kanakri, titled: A University English
Course, Pre-Intermediate, A University English Course, Intermediate, and A University English Course, Advanced,
2005.
27
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