Journeys to the Middle: An Analysis of Liminality within 20th Century Middle Eastern Literature and Scholarship

When imagining the “Middle East,” one might think of a particular region, identity construction, or even a style of cuisine. Yet, to what extent is the global perception of the Middle East rooted in strategic Western invention? When Edward W. Said published Orientalism in 1978, he prompted numerous critics—including contemporary ones like Ali Behdad and Magda M. Al-Nowaihi—to consider the precarious discursive representations of “the Orient” and the Middle East in Western scholarship. I extend this conversation in my analysis of Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih and Snow by Orhan Pamuk, where I seek to connect the themes of Middle Eastern literature with the concerns of postcolonial criticism. By focusing on the issues of double-consciousness, migrant assimilation, and the subjugation of women, I demonstrate how select Middle Eastern characters embody quintessentially postcolonial predicaments and challenge global understandings of the Middle East.