Imagining the Arab Other: How Arabs and Non-Arabs View Each Other

(Hardback)

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In this innovative study, Professor Tahar Labib seeks to understand how the 'Other' is viewed in Arab culture, and vice versa. "Imaginging The Arab Other" examines how Turks, Europeans, Christians and Iranians have been represented in the arts, opinions and cultures of the Arab world. Conversely, it also explores the intellectual representation of 'The Arab' in other cultures. It demonstrates the central role of the Catholic Church in ascribing to the Arab peoples a set of characteristics associated with the 'Other'. Labib places this survey in the context of theoretical debates, started by Edward Said's 'Orientalism', on the construction of 'Other'. With its diversity of perspectives, "Imagining The Arab Other" offers a new way of understanding of identity and cultural difference in the Middle East , one which goes beyond the Orientalist/Occidentalist paradigm.

Author Bio

Tahar Labib is Director General of the Arab Association of Translation in Beirut. Previously he was Professor of Sociology at the University of Tunis. He was the founder and honorary President of the Arab Association of Sociology.