The Self and the Other in "The Land of Dreams"

This paper is a study of the post-colonial polarity of the Self/the Other in Hanan Al Shaykh's short story "The Land of Dreams". It investigates the sub-textual tensions between her admiration of the European model (the Self) and her status as an Arab writer representing the Other. Thus, Al Shaykh presents a prejudiced text in which the Other is misrepresented and rather stereotypically portrayed. While the Self is civilised and a savior-like figure, the Other (Yemini men and women) is primitive, superstitious and ignorant.  Furthermore, the researcher will show that what seems to be a meaningful connection across the racial line where the Self (Ingrid; the civilised European) and the Other (Yemini people) find a contact zone is no more than an illogical oversimplification of the relationship. While Hanan Al Shaykh introduces this model of racial liberation through unification of the Self and the Other, the question remains to what extent would that relationship sustain the pressures of the primitive culture of the Other? Indeed, Al Shaykh tends to simplify and generalise the relationship to the point of producing romantic and idealised images of a human contact beyond cultural and racial gaps, which strikes the reader as naïve and unrealistic.