From Anglo-French to Early American Orientalism: Maupassant’s Au Soleil (1884), Edith Maude Hull’s The Sheik (1919), and Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Offshore Pirate” (1920).

Abstract

This dissertation studies the perception and the shift of Orientalism from Britain and France to America through Guy de Maupassant’s Au Soleil (1884), Edith Maude Hull’s The Sheik (1919), and Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Offshore Pirate” (1920). To achieve our goal, we have relied on Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978). We have first studied the French then the British Orientalizing of Algeria in the two texts, Au Soleil, and The Sheik. Second, we have explored the shift of the mis/representation of the Orientals from European literature to be applied on the Black, Arab, and Italian minorities in the American fiction through “The Offshore Pirate.” After the analysis of Maupassant’s, Hull’s, and Fitzgerald’s texts, we have reached the conclusion that the three authors share the same Orientalist representation of the gendered, racial, and ethnic groups. We have also concluded that each one of these authors supports the Orientalist discourse and promotes the supposed superiority of his nation.