Alien Encounters in Twentieth-Century Arabic Science Fiction: Talib Imran’s Ashbah as a Case Study

This essay surveys alien encounters in 20th-century Arabic Science Fiction (ASF). It points out that two characteristics prevail: first, aliens exclusively encounter Arabs; second, aliens are predominantly superior but indifferent to inferior humans. While the first characteristic is understandable, the second one is peculiar; it is odd that a genre written by colonized people and has been described as “emphatically postcolonial” dismisses the power struggle embedded in the superior colonizer-inferior colonized dichotomy. The author of the essay argues that understanding the difference between Jaques Lacan’s concepts of big Other and small other within an Arab postcolonial context allows us to understand this peculiarity better. While these two concepts normally occupy distinct orders in the psyche, they overlap in the collective postcolonial Arabic one. As a result, Arab postcolonial writers are more nuanced in their approach to the colonizer-colonized dichotomy in their works. The author exemplifies this in Talib Imran’s short story Ashbah. Understanding the perception of other in ASF significantly enhances our understanding of postcolonial literature. It also allows us to appreciate the diverse approaches postcolonial writers employ in their endeavors toward decolonization.