The Concept of Others and the Sense of Superiority in the Nineteenth Century English Travel Literature among the Arabs

Jamil Al-Asmar

doi:10.12816/0015919

Article Details

The Concept of Others and the Sense of Superiority in the Nineteenth Century English Travel Literature among the Arabs

Authors:

Jamil Al-Asmar

Publisher:

Al-Quds Open University

Main Topics:

English & Old English literatures

Journal:

Journal of Al-Quds Open University 2013 Issue 29 P1, pp.9-29

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2013

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

72084

Frequency:

Tri-Annual

pISSN:

20745648

DOI:

10.12816/0015919

Descriptors:

Abstract:

 لقد استحوذ مفهوم «الآخرين» على اهتمام المستشرقين الذين اختلطوا بشعوب ما وراء البحار من أمثال س.م. دوتي و ر.برتون. وقد عني هذا البحث بدراسة مفهوم هذا المصطلح عندهم معتمدين على الرؤية الكلاسيكية لهذا المصطلح. فهو يحمل في طياته -كما أشار البحث- معنى تمييزياً عنصرياً يقوم على أفضلية الغرب على الشرق، وهو معنى إن صدق في جوانب، فلا يصدق في جوانب آخرى. وكان جُل هم الفكتوريين تصوير الآخرين على أنهم دونهم ، فالمغالاة بأن الشرقيين لا يستحقون الأرض التي يعيشون عليها مثال على ذلك . وعلى هذا فقد درس البحث آراء الغرب ومواقفه حيال الشرق من خلال منهج وصفي ناقد للوصول إلى نتائج علمية في هذه القضية؛ مسلحين بالمرسوم المورث بأن قوة الأوروبين تنبع من ضعف الآخرين.

 The word “others” is encompassed by Orientalism, it is a word behind which numberless groups of Western travel writers lurk. These English travelers, such as C.M. Doughty and R. Burton, had to encounter the people overseas, who are called and evaluated as the “others”. A comprehensive study about the concept of others is included in this paper. The reader may follow the classical images of these “others” before he goes deeply into the Victorian travelers’ reports However, these travelers pronounced loudly their own superiority over theses others- whether they were Arabs, Asians, Africans or black Americans. Sometimes they are true in what they say about these others and most of the time untrue, for it is their own concern to depict these others as inferior to them. They show their readers that these others lack almost everything to the extent that they don’t deserve the land they stand on. They, sometimes terrify these others to control them. These others are sold and bought as goods. They, according to the English Victorian, must be exterminated and suppressed. The others are, in their eyes, brute. The last memento, the travelers left for their coming European generations, is that the strength of the European ever springs from the weakness of the others; the strength that should be used to suppress those who sniff the air on Earth.

Article Details

The Concept of Others and the Sense of Superiority in the Nineteenth Century English Travel Literature among the Arabs

Authors:

Jamil Al-Asmar

Publisher:

Al-Quds Open University

Main Topics:

English & Old English literatures

Journal:

Journal of Al-Quds Open University 2013 Issue 29 P1, pp.9-29

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2013

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

72084

Frequency:

Tri-Annual

pISSN:

20745648

DOI:

10.12816/0015919

Descriptors:

TRAVEL LITERATURE

LITERARY FORMS

SUPERIORITY COMPLEX

LITERARY ANALYSIS

ORIENTALISM AND ORIENTALISTS

ARABS

NINETEENTH CENTURY

Issues

Article Details

Authors: Jamil Al-Asmar

Publisher: Al-Quds Open University

Main Topics: English & Old English literatures

Journal: Journal of Al-Quds Open University 2013 Issue 29 P1, pp.9-29

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 2/2013

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 72084

Frequency: Tri-Annual

pISSN: 20745648

DOI: 10.12816/0015919

Descriptors:

Issues

Authors:

Jamil Al-Asmar

Publisher:

Al-Quds Open University

Main Topics:

English & Old English literatures

Journal:

Journal of Al-Quds Open University 2013 Issue 29 P1, pp.9-29

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2013

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

72084

Frequency:

Tri-Annual

pISSN:

20745648

DOI:

10.12816/0015919