Imperial Fictions - Softcover

Kabbani, Rana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0044409117 ISBN 13: 9780044409113

Publisher: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List, 1995

Synopsis

Rana Kabbani unravels Western fantasies and myths about the East which were woven over the ages. Devised during the Crusades to combat Islam, then confirmed by centuries of Western writers and artists, these myths fostered racial and sexual stereotypes that became vital to imperial designs. In Orientalist travelogues and paintings, the British and the French conceived of an erotic and sinister East, one that they believed to be morally inferior and dangerous, and therefore ripe for colonisation. Such perceptions remain very much apparent today, fuelling the tension between East and West. "Imperial Fictions", now a classic, is an erudite analysis of Europe's fabricated Orient, as expressed in its writings and illustrated in its paintings.

About this title

Review

"A provocative and appropriately subversive book."--The New York Times "Rana Kabbini polemically undertakes to rescue the Islamic East from centuries of Western contempt"--The Observer "Admirably pinpoints those aspects of the West's imaginative involveme

About the Author

Rana Kabbani is a writer and broadcaster. She is the author of Letter to Christendom, and has introduced and edited The Passionate Nomad: The Diary of Isabelle Eberhardt (both Virago). Her translation of Mahmoud Darwish's poetry was published in Sand and Other Poems (Kegan Paul). She is a frequent contributor to The Guardian, and has written and presented many programmes for BBC radio and television.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0044409117
• ISBN 13: 9780044409113
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176