The Occidental in Arabic Fiction

In Arab Representations of the Occident: East-West Encounters in Arabic Fiction (2006), Rasheed El-Enany contrasts the objectivity and rationality of Arab intellectuals in representing the West with the West's irrational and biased representation of the "Other." According to El-Enany, Arab intellectuals like Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Suhayl Idris, Al-Tayyib Salih and Ahdaf Soueif are ambivalent in their attitudes toward the West. To these writers, the West is an enemy and a friend, a usurper and a giver, and a shelter and a threat. In some cases, these images are seen to be an idealization of the West and a manifestation of a desire to be Western.