المستخلص: |
The 'self and other' relationship has been problematic throughout the ages. History of mankind provides endless episodes of how man instinctively tried, and is still trying, to dominate and control the 'other', who is the contrasting picture of the self. This domination takes many forms and goes deep into endless layers and strata in the structures of societies. Wars for domination and control over the 'other' broke out in almost every part of the planet, resulting in taking territories and imposing a sort of political, social and even cultural behavior on the defeated, because the winner always develops a sense of superiority and this drives him to impose his own way of life on the 'other'. The white-skinned people, Europeans to be specific, dominated many people in different parts of the world for centuries together in what is known as colonization. Not only did the Europeans during the age of colonization put their hand on the natural resources of the colonized countries and exploited them very badly, they also tried to impose their way of life on people there and forced them to follow the European style in every aspect of life. This paper attempts to highlight and discuss the self and other relationship in Paul Torday's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Torday, a British writer, presents in this novel a sort of contact and interaction between Westerners, mainly Britishers, and Middle Eastern Arabs, mainly Yemenis. This contact is made to take the form of a superior-inferior relationship.
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