Reading Arabia: British Orientalism in the Age of Mass Publication, 1880-1930

Contemporary Issues in the Middle East

by Andrew C. Long

In Reading Arabia, Long explores the change in the tradition of British Orientalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He examines the role of mass print culture, including travel literature, newspapers, and silent films, in the construction of the British publics perception of Arabia

269 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2013

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Reading Arabia” does an excellent job of unpacking the cultural imaginary of the Arab world during the period 1880-1930. Long draws upon discourses of mass culture and psychoanalysis in order to examine the works of writers Burton, Doughty, Graham, Pickthall and T.E. Lawrence. What I particularly enjoyed about “Reading Arabia” is Long’s analysis of objects and sources that surround the primary text of these writers’ works, such as ads for soap, travel guides, newspapers and other forms of popular literature of the time. These commodities of consumer culture provide a pathway into the West’s imaginary of the Arab world. The following passage, which I paraphrase here, illustrates Long’s method of research: we should not try entering the front door of the storehouse of Orientalism. Rather, we should look to the unconscious (the unexpected places and things) as a way to unpack and map the symptoms of Orientalism. For example, Long explains how Robert Cunninghame Graham’s novel "Mogreb-el-Acksa" expressed anti-imperialism and anti-Orientalism. At the same time, Graham needs (and even favored) Western’s discourse of popular literary forms of writing for working and middle-class readers in order to express his stance on Empire. But probably the best example is the archive photos of Burton, Graham, Pickthall, and T.E. Lawrence used in the conclusion of “Reading Arabia.” Here, Long carefully examines how their fashion connects to the West’s fantasy of the Orient. Although the texts analyzed in this project are from the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, “Reading Arabia” speaks to our current moment. I was fortunate to have taken Long’s course on Realism and the fin de siècle as a graduate student at Claremont Graduate University, so I was quite excited to read the issues and topics from the course at work in “Reading Arabia.” I highly recommend Long’s book, especially for students interested in postcolonialism, Empire studies and psychoanalysis.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Arabia: British Orientalism in the Age of Mass Publication, 1880 -1930 by Andrew C. Long is a study of the Middle East in British literature. Long earned his B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and his PhD in Comparative Literature from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. He currently teaches in the Department of Cultural Studies at the Claremont Graduate University. Long previously taught at American University in Beirut.

I was not exactly sure what to expect from this book. My interests lie in history and English literature of that time period. I was expecting more of a socio-political treatment of the period rather than a detailed study of the literature and authors. This book is not about the major historical aspect of this period, such as the partitioning of the Middle East, the occupation of Iraq, the results of the Afghanistan conflict, but about literature of the period.

The works covered include Richard Burton’s translation of The Kama Sutra and Arabian Nights Entertainments, The Scented Garden and others by the Kama Shastra Society which were considered more pornographic than literature. Among the groups the Cannibal Club, members of Victorian society, interested in exotic pornography. Burton had quite a unique view of the world. He claimed by his research most Mediterranean men are bisexual while Arabs are pederasts. He also noted, and apparently measured, a male Somalian’s genital size for a footnote for one of his texts. Other texts covered and analyzed are Doughty’s Travels and Edith Hull’s The Sheik, made famous by Rudolph Valentino.

Some of the literature had very little to do with the Middle East and Africa. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Tragedy of Korosko which was an adventure novel that merely used the Sudan as a backdrop for the story. Hull, who wrote The Sheik, had never visited the Middle East. She was what could be described as a middle class housewife. Following her, more authors started writing “desert romance” books.

Reading Arabia covers an interesting period of British history and a few important advancements in British society. The first was the social movements that created leisure time and a middle class. Secondly, there were advancements in printing, making books affordable to most people. Lastly, there was the British Empire. Most people never left England and the far off exotic lands provided an interesting escape from daily drudgery. Reading Arabia may not be a book for historians, but for students of British literature and culture and sociologists this is a worthwhile read.