Discourse Analysis: New Language and New Attitude towards Yemen in Contemporary British Novel; Salmon Fishing in Yemen as an Example

Abstract

In the critical work on European orientalism, the European scholars approach post 9/11 British neo-orientalist discourse with a totalizing view of representation; a part of the dominant misrepresentation. This study examines issues related to Yemen in Paul Torday’s novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007). In Salmon Fishing, Torday uses fragmented forms of narrations for his new approach of representation. He uses newspapers, interviews, emails, news articles, document transcripts, diary entries, personal interviews, scientific reports and memoranda as narrative techniques to re-conceptualize the Yemeni people. This study investigates the British political and cultural attitudes towards Yemen and the improvement in the representation of Yemen in post 9/11 British discourse by focusing on the fissures between classic orientalism and neo-orientalism. In the analysis of Salmon Fishing, the study scrutinizes the views of Ralph Emerson and Georg Lukács which are usually associated more closely with studies on representations. The study manifestly identifies the harmony, cooperation and mutual understanding between the east and the west in post 9/11 British discourse on Yemen.