Occidentalism Revisited: Insights from Contemporary Anglophone Arab Diasporic Literature

Occidentalism has traditionally been regarded as a theoretical perspective through which the Arab “self” represents the Western “other.” Scholars who have made critical and insightful contributions to the development of the concept of Occidentalism within Arab literary traditions include Hasan Hanafi, Rasheed El-Enany, Zahia Smail Salhi, and most recently, Ahmed Shalabi and Yousef Abu Amrieh. Shalabi and Abu Amrieh have proposed a new definition of Occidentalism, primarily informed by the study of contemporary Anglophone Arab diasporic literature. They identify a gap in previous discussions concerning the scope and applicability of Occidentalism as a viable theoretical framework. Building on their findings, this paper aims to analyze Layla AlAmmar’s Silence Is a Sense and Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise as Occidentalist texts that depict the challenges and hardships Arab immigrants and refugees face in their pursuit of a new life in the “West.” We argue that, through the lens of Occidentalism, the two texts offer nuanced portrayals of the suffering experienced by Arab immigrants and refugees. In doing so, these narratives seek to demystify the romantically held notions about the “West” that many Arab people have adopted while simultaneously drawing Western readers’ attention to the agonies of immigrants and refugees. We conclude that Occidentalism can be utilized as a theoretical framework through which the Arab “self” strives to capture the elusive and delusive reality that many Arab individuals choose to overlook.