The Desert and the Dancing Girls

On the "Shaykhly Love" front, al-Sharq al-Awsat today runs a piece complaining about an odd choice by Penguin.  For their series of 70 books published as part of the 70th anniversary of Pocket Books, Penguin chose to run excerpts from Gustave Flaubert's "Letters from Egypt."  Fine... but, as Susan Bashir points out, why did they publish these excerpts under the title "The Desert and the Dancing Girls", with this cover:

What do these two "half naked girls" (Bashir's words) have to do with Flaubert's letters from Egypt?    Is this what Penguin thinks the Arab world really is, she asks - empty deserts and exotic dancing girls?

Honestly, this does seem a bit like something Edward Said would have had to invent if it weren't true.   Reducing the "Orient" to the desert and dancing girls... in a series which happily includes colonialism enthusiast Niall Ferguson but could find room for only two non-white authors... it would all seem to come right out of Said's Orientalism playbook.   

Comments

[Abu Sinan]

Orientalism at its finest. Said had it spot on!

[WH]

While I agree the book covers seems to reduce the "Orient" to the desert and dancing girls, but it should be noted that within the European travel literature on 19th century Egypt, Flaubert's letters from Egypt are best known for his interest in "brothels" and "dancing girls" (in contrast to others who were stricken by what one author calls "ruinmania.) For an interesting contrast between Flaubert's and Florence Nightingale's travel writings, see: D.Gregory "Between the book and the lamp: imaginative geographies of Egypt, 1849-50" Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 20, Number 1, March 1995, pp. 29-57.

[the aardvark]

Darn, WH, that's really interesting and erudite. Far more so than my amused response. Thanks.

[Nur al-Cubicle]

All very Salambò if you ask me. Orientalism à l'outrance--snakes, sand and seduction (maybe some hashish, too) for frustrated Victorians.

More, more, more, more and more Salambo.

[Zeynab]

This is a great analysis; do you mind if I feature it on my website?