Fatin A Abuhilal
Nationality: Jordanian
Currently1: Assistant Professor of English Literature & Orientalism
English Department, Yarmouk University, Jordan
PH.D. in Modern Literature and Criticism with Distinction
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Dissertation Title: "The Construction of Woman in the Colonial Text: Reorienting Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory of Edward Said's Orientalism."
M.A. in English Language and Literature Yarmouk University, First Degree Award.
Thesis Title: "Perception and Interpretation of English and Arabic Intonation Patterns by Jordanian University Students."
B.A. in English Language and Literature Yarmouk University.
Fatin A. Abuhilal (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of English Literature, Literary Criticism and Cultural Studies in Yarmouk University, Jordan since 2002. Previous to this I taught in a number of intermediate colleges and schools in Jordan. My principal research interests are English/American literature, Postcolonial Criticism and Orientalism. I have particular interests in issues pertaining to Post-colonial Literature, Travel Narrative, American and English Holy Land Literature(s), Minority Literature, Diaspora, Pedagogy and Criticism, Literature and Cinema, Neo-American Orientalism and literature related to cross-cultural encounters. My papers on Post-colonial Literature and Criticism have been published in several journals. I have also participated in different international conferences including the USA and Jordan.
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
English literature, American Literature, Orientalism, Cultural Studies, Contemporary Literary Theories (Post-colonialism, Post-modernism, Feminism, Historicism, Post-structuralism and Cross-Cultural Studies), 19th-century and Modern Literature Novel and Travel Narrative, Post-American Orientalism, Pedagogy and Criticism, Women and Minority studies, Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory, The Renaissance Literature and Literature and Cinema.
Experience
2002 – Present: Assistant Professor, Department of English, Yarmouk University, Irbid-Jordan.
1989-1994: Lecturer of Language, Literature and Writing Skills, ArRazi/ Ibn Khaldun and Garnata Colleges.
Publications
1- Abuhilal, F. (2013). "The Discourse of Palestinian Diaspora in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir: A Post–Orientalism Analysis." Journal of Post-Colonial Cultures and Societies. 4 (3): 30-50.
2- Abuhilal, Fatin & Abu-shomar, A . (2014). "The Construction of the “Self” in Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad: The Positional Superiority of the American Identity in the Nineteenth-century Travel Narrative." International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation. 2 (4): 15-62.
3- Abu-Shomar. A. & Abuhilal, F. (2014). "Dialogic Signs of Resistance: A Case Study of Reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness." Arab World English Journal. 5 (4): 145-171.
4- Abuhilal, Fatin. & Abu-Shomar, A . (2014). "On Pedagogy and Resistance: Unraveling the Post-Colonial Politics in the Literature Classroom." Journal of Anti-Utilitarian and Post-Colonial Studies. 4 (2) : 175-192.
5-Abuhilal, F. (2015). "Book Review of The Holy Land in the English Culture 1799-1917: Palestine and the Question of Orientalism," by Etian Bar-Yosef. International Journal of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies. 3 (1): 1-3.
6- Abuhilal, F. (2015). "Sacred Geography, Sacred History and Imperial Politics: The Image of Palestine in the American Holy Land Literature." Journal of Asia Pacific Studies. July, 2015, volume 4 N.1. 5-32.
7- Abuhilal, Fatin. (2016). "Can you make no use of nothing?" Madness, Heroism and Power in William Shakespeare's King Lear." Association of Arab Universities Journal for Arts. (13) forthcoming issue.
8- Abu Hilal, F. (2016) "The Great-power Status of Pilgrimage: An Amalgam of Colonial, Religious, and Secular Discourse in the Construction of American's Hybrid and Ambivalent Identity." A forthcoming issue in Journal of Post-colonial Cultures and Societies.
9-Abu Hilal, F. (2016). “Writing in the Oral Tradition: The Crisis of Self Representation in the American Native Literature: A Postmodern Reading of Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles." A forthcoming issue in Association of Arab Universities Journal for Arts.
Articles Submitted for publication
1- Abuhilal, Fatin. "Writing in the Oral Tradition: The Crisis of Self Representation in the American Native Literature: A Postmodern Reading of Gerald's Vizenor's Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles."
2- Abuhilal, Fatin. "The Great-power Status of Pilgrimage: An Amalgam of Colonial, Religious, and Secular Discourse in the Construction of American’s Hybrid and Ambivalent Identity." A forthcoming issue in Journal of Post-Colonial Cultures and Societies.
Works in progress
3- Jordan and Palestine in the American and British Holy Land Literature(s). (under revision book).
4- The Edward Said’s Reader (A Textbook for undergraduate students).
5- Abuhilal, Fatin. Book Review Brian Yother's The Romance of the Holy Land in American Travel Writing, 1790-1876.
Papers Presented at Conferences
1-The Pennsylvania College English Association Conference on Literature, Pedagogy and Criticism (March, 1998). “'Can you Make no Use of Nothing,' Strategies of Madness in William Shakespeare’s King Lear.”
2- Indiana University of Pennsylvania Conference (March, 2000). “Under Eastern Eyes: Extending the Colonial Discourse Analysis of Edward Said’s Orientalism.”
3-Yarmouk University Conference on Language, Literature and Translation (April, 2004). “Writing Back: Resistance, Displacement and Marginality in Colonial Discourses.”
Reviews of Books
Book Review: "The Holy Land in English Culture 1799-1917: Palestine and the Question Of Orientalism By Eitan Bar-Yosef." International Journal of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies. 3 (1): 1-3.
Academic Honors and Awards
1- A First Degree Award for Literary Speech Competition in 1982.
2- Graduate Assistantships as M.A Student, Yarmouk University, Jordan (1989-1992).
3- A First Award-winning Honor M.A Degree in 1993.
4- Yarmouk University Scholarship (4 years) to Pursue Ph. D Degree in USA.
5- On the Honor List as a Ph. D Student for four years.
6- Honorary Academician of Social Sciences ("AcIASS") by International Academy of Social Sciences.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
English language is my area of expertise, which I have established through some subsequent university degrees; B.A., M.A., PhD. In my postgraduate study, in particular, I have developed an interest in the area of English literature and Orientalism, and advocated the field of Post-Orientalism and Neo-American Orientalism in tracing the history of the British and American textual and non-textual experiences in the Middle East, specifically in Jordan and Palestine. This has become my extended Holy Land Literature Project (a forthcoming encyclopedic book) in which I employ different perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches in tracing the reflection of the British and the American colonial and Postcolonial experiences in the literary texts, specifically from innovative Postmodern theoretical backgrounds and perspectives.
In my M.A and Ph. D studies, I have engaged with major literary theories including Reader Response Theory, Russian Formalism, (Post)structuralism, Marxism, Historicism, Feminism, (Post)modernism, and specialized in Post-colonialism. One of my major arguments is my engagement with Michel Foucault's concept of Power, Gramsci's theory of 'Hegemony' and 'Edward's Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory through which I have developed a convincing linkage between cultural and literary representations and the conceptuality and operation of power relations in the Western civilization. Specifically, I have focused on the link between Post-colonial theory and other cultural disciplines including gender and feminist studies. In subsequent research, I have carried out a thoroughgoing reorientation of Edward Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis theory in relating it to different fields of inquiry, including Feminism, Gender studies, Minority Literature, Diaspora studies and advocated the incorporation of Resistant Literature and Holy Land Literature in the field of Oriental studies. For me, this research has meant the need for a re-reading of the philosophies of higher learning institutions, specifically their pertinent curricula and methodology, especially in the so-called Third World English departments and other institutions, as well. In my diverse works in the field of Orientalism, I have demonstrated the need for the incorporation of a revised Post-colonial theory in the literature classroom which can be employed to read, analyze and critique the well-established Eurocentric thoughts and representations, employed in artistic forms and other productions of Western knowledge, from what I call an Other World perspective.
In subsequent works, I have traced the development of the English and American literatures in different historical epochs and showed how such literatures have incorporated and provided hegemonic power relations on various levels and dimensions. I have employed a Post-Orieintalist reading of many English/American literary works and movements and argued that an experience with such literature is best achieved through placing it within diverse cultural studies from Western as well as non-Western perspectives. More precisely, I have proposed an approach to literature that incorporates various counter oppositional techniques, theories and practices. In this regard, I have also revised some works by major Post-colonial theorists such as Homi Bhabha, Guyatri Spivak, Stuart Hall, and Robert Young among many others. More contemporary works from the new millennium are being addressed in my research on the history of the American Holy Land Literature including Holy Edwards, Douglass Little, Hilton Obenzinger, Brian Yothers, Michael Oren and others. Such a grasp of complex Post-colonial concepts and theories- including a revision of Edward Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory, concepts like the Post-colonial identity and its relevance to 'hybridity', liminaliy, Subaltern Studies and Diasporic positions and identities- is also extremely incorporated in my analysis and investigation of the Post-colonial literature.
My research has traced the emergence of Neo-American Orientalism in a number of cultural inclinations and trends, especially as incorporated in the Literature classroom. More specifically, there have been recently some postcolonial studies that address the American imperialist interests in the Middle East which gave rise to new fields of research and inquiry like American Orientalism. British and French Orientalism(s) in the Middle East have been the focus of Edward Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis theory in his famous Orientalism whose distinctive theory has been followed by the majority of postcolonial critics and advocates all throughout the twentieth century. However, Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory did not adequately address the specific construction of the American culture and its ability to produce hegemonic cultural patterns that became prevalent and influential all throughout the twentieth and the twentieth first centuries. My research underlies the significance of studies that address new forms of Orientalism(s) like the rising Neo-American Orientalism which has emerged as a result of the long colonial history of religious and imperialist interests, involvement and intrusion not only in Palestine and Jordan but in the whole Mediterranean region. My research shows how this has constructed a firm Western hegemonic discourse which has led to the emergence of new forms of cultural hegemony and imperialism(s) in the twentieth and twentieth first centuries.
Drawing on the different components of the Western/American ideology and culture and the devastating impact they have left on generating new forms of reality, the political, the social, the demographic and the religious realities of modern and post modern postcolonial societies, my research has focused on the different ways with which the Orient has been inscribed and represented in the Post-colonial text and the different devices through which it was "appropriated" to the interests of the American literature text. It is exceptional how the practices of such a tradition produce a hegemonic discourse whose main components are the ancient orthodox established belief and the rising secular ideology and the convoluted combination of both the real and the literal or the imaginative, in both the American and the British cultures. Because of its encyclopedic scope and religious and historical intricacy, my research has concentrated on charting outlines and pertinent areas of interest that will be further traced by Postcolonial and cultural critics and students. Specifically, the act of relating literary historicism, sacred geography, religion, archeology to the repeated acts of "interpreting the Orient "rewriting" it and presenting it to the Western audience has enabled me to revise major concepts such as 'cultural supremacy', 'cultural hegemony', 'cultural relativity', 'cultural identity', 'hybrid identity' which are amongst many other challenging ideas that I have critically traced in my project. Through the connection of these concepts to both the apparatuses of the literary canon and my personal experiences as an Arab/Jordanian/Palestinian, I hope I will be able to re-consider and revise concepts and theories that are deemed integral to the higher Postcolonial institutions.
In my later-on academic experience, I have developed a special interest in the area of teaching English literature through cross-cultural contacts. An important technique that underlies my approach is the examination of the historical or/and the literary data with emphasis on their reflection of the specific Western/American cultural thought and philosophies. The outcome of all the material collected throughout my career is a revised method that is based on Edward Said's Colonial Discourse Analysis Theory which has required the discursive and cultural analysis of all the data presented in the classroom. This has been achieved in my literature classroom in order to permit conclusions that have the most extensive and expansive possible groundwork or basis. Moreover, relying on an inter-disciplinary approach, and incorporating an amalgam of fields, sub-cultures, and genres my research and teaching experience present the kind of questions and approaches that would threaten with new paradigms, pioneering point of references and critical approaches that would shift the focus or center of attention in Postcolonial institutions, especially in their higher philosophies and academic productions.
I have also developed a research repertoire during my engagement with various philosophical and methodological research stances in the area of English literature, in general, and postcolonial studies in particular. In this respect, I have adopted and developed the colonial discourse analysis theory that exceeds the notion of self/other paradigm itself which I have destabilized in my Ph. D research. In short, I believe that the academic line of my research would be appropriate to fulfill the requirements of an academic lecturer in English/American Literatures and Orientalism. Relying on different experiences in the classroom- with students with different cultural and educational backgrounds, I have developed excellent communicative skills with students, colleagues and supervisors. I deem myself as a teacher as well as a researcher who can cross the boundary of theory and make it a reality in my academic institution. I can perform better when working with large groups and can easily exchange knowledge and experience with students whom I do highly respect and have belief in their capacity to extend and develop my thoughts and theories inside and outside the classroom. I do not mind getting my students involved in future projects that would enforce a better milieu of learning, life experience and career opportunity. Last, in line with this route of academic, professional and personal experience and traits, I believe this would enable me to carry out my professional obligations as a lecturer, and a researcher of English literature and cultural studies at the graduate and post-graduate levels at any university.