| Publication |
2014.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article seeks to apply Derrida's deconstruction of elements constituting national identity as established under colonial power to the study of Bassam Tibi, Fouad Ajami, and Bernard Lewis' work on Arab identity. This approach allows the emergence of colonial and neo-colonial elements underlying these authors' understanding of what Edward Said identified as the "Arab condition." Analyses show that both Arab authors' definition of Arab identity has been heavily influenced by colonial powers in a threefold manner: early colonization of the Arab lands by the Ottomans until 1920, European colonial rule during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and finally, the impact of living in the West. The article also highlights how the colonial power, exemplified in the work of Bernard Lewis, chooses to view the colonized "other" and often changes this view in accordance with political expediency.
|