Postcolonial Literature and Arabic SF

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between postcolonial theories of literature and postcolonial literature and between postcolonial theory and Arabic literature. The initial section of this analysis focuses upon what constitutes the “postcolonial stance” in twentieth-century Arabic literature. Next, the chapter examines hybridity, ambivalence and the colonial encounter, critiques of these concepts and how each of them manifests in Arabic literature and Arabic SF. After exploring John Rieder’s conception of the colonial encounter as it applies to Anglo-American SF, and the imperialist roots of the genre, the chapter moves to one of the primary critiques of postcolonial studies: Neil Lazarus argues that it operates on too narrow a range of literature, and that this literature is nearly always in English or French. ASF is proposed as a genre through which these postcolonial concepts can be read and critiqued. The final section of the chapter is an enumeration of the primary theoretical frameworks through which SF is typically examined.