CENTERING THE OTHER : MAKING THE NATIVE VISIBLE

Majed Hamed Aladaylah

ABSTRACT:

Constructs of  Othering, is a construct of Western colonialism

discourse constituting the ideologies of imperialism and the motivations to “civilize”

the East. Since discourse by nature is rule-govern, it will define, describe what is

possible to say or what is not possible or not say in a particular situation and its

conventions will determine what to write, how to write and how to represent the Self in

the writing.  In the process of Othering, the Self is centred, glorified and made visible

while the Other is vilified, silenced and made invisible. The strategies of Othering are

manifold and include the use if binary oppositions, unvoicing and dehumanizing. The

fundamental element in the project of Othering is the provision of positive features to

the Occident and negative ones to the Orient.  The paper engages the construct of

Othering  using an Orientalist reading position in demonstrating the absurdities of

representations in western colonialist discourse. The object of the paper is to

dismantle the cloak of “invisibility” shrouding the Other so that true representations

may be enabled. The paper exemplifies the above notions using William Somerset

Maugham’s short story The Yellow Streak.