The Representation of Gender and Religion in Robert Hichens’s The Garden of Allah (1904): An Orientalist Study
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Date
2025
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
This research explores the British literary representation of Algeria under French rule during the early
1900’s. This dissertation critically analyses Robert Hichens’s The Garden of Allah (1904) through
Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, with a particular focus on the novel’s construction of gender and
religion in colonial Algeria. Borrowing key ‘Orientalist’ concepts such as “The Orient,” stereotyping,
binary opposition and hegemony, the research paper argues that British literary narratives, particularly The
Garden of Allah, project cultural superiority and moral authority onto the colonized Algerians by
misrepresenting their gender and religious identities on the one hand and positively representing the West
from the other. It explores the representation of Algerian men and women, along with the Western
characters, arguing that Algerian gender stereotyped and Orientalized, to reinforce French colonial and
patriarchal ideologies, and the Western in broad terms. Moreover, the present work analyses the
representation of religious discourses in the novel and puts emphasis on the fact that Christianity is
portrayed as a civilizing force while Islam is marginalized and exoticized. Through a close and textual
reading of Hichens’s novel and implementation of postcolonial theories, the dissertation concluded that
The Garden of Allah contributes as a colonial text in the imperialist propaganda that supports colonialism
and calls for a civilizing mission and settlement project.
Description
55p. ; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Gender, religion, Orientalist discourse, Robert Hichens, The Garden of Allah
Citation
Literature and Interdisciplinary Approaches