Colonization: The Spirit of the Age in Ahdaf Soueif s The Map of Love

This article is a textual reading of Ahdaf Soueif s novel The Mapof Love (1999) highlighting Egypt s history in the last 100 years, throughmirroring intercultural love stories. It explores how she analyzes theEgyptian past, then compares it simultaneously to the status quo of Egyptin 1997. Souif re-examines the British colonization of Egypt andjuxtaposes it with the modern prevailing force of neo-colonization in thepost-emancipation period. The aim is to question the inevitability of Westcolonization over Egypt which has led to implementing hierarchalstructure between the wise civilized West; self, and the illiterateuncivilized East; other. This article focuses more on the Britishcolonization than on the Ottoman one, since the former had the upperhand over Egypt. The novel underlines how the colonial/neocolonialhegemony was, and is still, maintained by using the same tactics, namely,by imposing force, the theory of efficiency, perpetuating sectarianism,and controlling education in Egypt. Hence, as the novel explicates,Egyptians suffer in the present from the same problems encounteredunder British mandate. Moreover, Egyptians struggle with the Americandomination which intends to control Egypt s natural resources andsupport and secure “Israel”. Nonetheless, Soueif introduces a third hybridglobalized space created by the respect and understanding of theintercultural meeting between the West and the East.The love stories between the main characters are not a mere romance, but a means of achieving a unity of conscience; this unity breaks the inevitability of colonization and deconstructs the binary oppositions and stereotypes of West and East. Mezzaterra reconciles the similarities and differences between the past and present Egyptian society, i.e. differance. Consequently, a mezzaterra state of understanding is created connecting the past and present at the backdrop of historical events. Soueif s mezzaterra aims at paving the way for a hope of living in a common ground for all humanity