Rereading Naipaul’s Orient in the Light of Orientalism

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Abstract

As a significant number of post-colonial writers have reread colonial masterpieces, the main purpose of the researchers in this study is a detailed analysis of Among the Believers by V. S. Naipaul in the light of Orientalism.This article is indeed a response to the representation of the Orient, Islam, and the Islamic Middle East in the West, in general, and in Naipaul’s travel writing, in particular. The present article is also an attempt to trace the concepts and images that led not only to the emergence of the stereotypical and monolithic Orient, but also the portrayal of the Muslims throughout colonial discourse and clichés. Moreover, it focuses on the process of generating the constructed representation that established in the end the binary opposition between the Orient and the Occident. In fact, the orientalized Orient with its cultural, religious, political, and historical differences has been turned into a serious threat against the Western civilization. Finally, the researchers endeavor to highlight the Orientals’ resistance as well as the role of Islam as a matrix of resistance against the dominance and hegemony of the West.

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