The Dilemma of Self-definition and the Conflict of Identities in Ahmed Abdullah Al-Saqqaf's Novel 'Fatat Qarout'

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the manifestations of identity stability and change within the framework of the multiplicity of cultural patterns in an environment that embraced ethnicities in which civilizational and cultural trends overlap and intersect in the Indonesian archipelago, as depicted in Ahmed Abdullah Al-Saqqaf's novel ‘Fatat Qarout‘, This is done through studying identity, as a basic foundation upon which the patterns are based in their cultural conflict in general and manifested through two main axes: the creed represented in (Islam) and the language represented in (Arabic), out of which some overlapping and intertwined elements emerge and are embodied by the duality of (the Self) and (the Other). This study has an introduction introducing the novel, and two other sections, one deals with the cultural conflict between the Self and the Other (an inner conflict) and the cultural conflict between the Self and the Other (an external contradictory conflict). The theoretical framework of this study is based on the cultural criticism. The study showed that the Arabic (ego) sought with an open mind to establish its identity on the basis of updating its variables in an open environment (Indonesia) with the (Other) in general. It also sought to achieve its goals steadily and in equality with both the internal and the external (Other).