[01] Najim A. Kadhim, Department of Arabic Language College of Arts, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.

Being at the centre does not mean that those on t periphery (i.e., the Third World) automatically accept that the West is the master while they are the followers and subordinates. A certain attitude adopted by many Arabs towards the West derives from this unfair relationship, and accepting this as a fact undoubtedly means that those who can better convey this mind set are Arab artists, theorists, writers, and scholars in general. The chief literary discourse through which this peer group expresses this attitude and the thinking connected with it, e.g., opposing the unjust hegemonic equation in Arab-West relations, is the Arabic novel. The paper is based on the hypothesis that post-colonial Arabic novels, particularly those published during the past four decades, express rejection of the West as a hegemonic centre in its relation with the Arabs. In this regard, the dominant image of the West presented by the authors is mostly negative. Portrayed in the novels by western characters, the West and its hegemony will usually be opposed by the protagonists and other Arab characters. This, the paper believes, is one of the idealistic post-colonial discourses in which Arabs intellectuals engage.

Arabic, West, Novel, Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Negative, Positive

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