The Subaltern Speaks: Al-Nowaihi & Colonialism

Within her The "Middle East"? Or. . . /Arabic Literature and the Postcolonial Predicament, Magda M. Al-Nowaihi demonstrates how literature from the Middle East exemplifies the postcolonial problematics of the region; however, one of the most essential parts of her argument hinges on her refusal to refer to the text as an all encompassing.  Al-Nowaihi states, "Attempting to cover all this in an essay of 7,500-8,000 words risks homogenizing the differences and glossing over the specific histories and multiple contextual nuances of the peoples and cultures of this geographical area. . . This homogenization of the 'other' is itself on of the basic strategies of colonialism" (282).  By focusing mainly upon Egypt's history of colonization, political resistance, and literary tradition, Al-Nowaihi is able to produce a criticism of European colonial interests within the Middle East without overly essentializing any particular region's cultural praxes.  Unless the academic community at large takes heed of the methodology Al-Nowaihi implements, it will ultimately produce a form of intellectual colonialism that negates the differences between these specific groups.  I find Al-Nowaihi's observations of the changes within her own university (Columbia) to be especially telling of the sorts of changes that must be implemented to resist this intellectual colonialism.

As Western powers slowly colonized the Middle Eastern region, political and cultural ideology began to saturate the landscape.  Al-Nowaihi demonstrates how this simultaneous physical and ideological invasion and occupation influenced Middle Easter societies.  The literary struggle between autonomy/agency and community/solidarity "parallels the displacement of that warm communal life with a new lifestyle that is more affluent, but that is characterized by materialism, rampant consumerism, and personal greed. . . liked to the general changes brought about by the European powers" (290).  This struggle between Western and traditional belief systems are aligned with modernism and generally colonization.  An endlessly complex region before Western influence was imposed and injected into the cultures, the Middle East, as its literature demonstrates, is presented with a unique fusion of philosophies that must somehow achieve balance if the region is to remain a significant part of global economic and political systems.