International Journal of Arabic-English Studies (IJAES) Vol. 14, 2013 137 Writing against the Grain: Walter Scott's The Talisman Samira al-Khawaldeh* The University of Jordan Abstract: This study investigates Walter Scott's novel The Talisman from a postcolonial perspective. It consists of four parts: the reception of the novel's Arabic translation, Scott's historicism, especially Edward Said's dis/valuation of it, Scott's representation of Saladin as universal man, and a critical analysis of Scott's attempt to break new ground and write against the grain in the heyday of empire, and to liberate the image of the East from the lingering medieval prejudices. The article's thesis is that Scott's historicism does not adhere to the early-nineteenth-century trend of Orientalism as proposed by Said. It aims at presenting a different perspective on Scott’s work: that the East meets the West in the space of The Talisman in an archetypal civilisational dialogue in which Scott revisits history in order to connect it teleologically with the present and the future. 1. Introduction The need to revisit Walter Scott's The Talisman (1832) issues from the apparent neglect of this novel despite its seminal location on the map of another type of 'border' literature where the East meets the West, - an archetypal civilisational dialogue. The novel has received relatively little attention and indeed, as some critics confirm, "it is sometimes omitted altogether in critical discussions of Scott's work" (Irwin 1997:130). A closer look at the history of fiction reveals that The Talisman ushered a trend in the genre which questions one way or another the European adventures in the East; a trend, though in the shadow of empire less frequently pursued, continued nevertheless to live in the masterpieces of Joseph Conrad and E.M. Forster. Casting doubt on empire in its heyday might well be one reason why the novel has been, until recently, less favourably received. Investigated here is the reception of The Talisman in the Arab World, Scott's dialogical approach to cultural and political differences, and his representation of Saladin (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) (1138-1193). Scott's historicism and the multilayered time structure he generally employs in his fiction has been expounded by many critics. In the present article, however, this is highlighted as a tool of revisiting history in order to teleologically connect it with the present. 2. The reception of The Talisman in the Arab World Edward Said is not the only one to criticise Scott's The Talisman, accusing Scott, in his epoch-making Orientalism, of “letting his Christian characters attack Muslims theologically” (2003:101). Recently, students at the University of Jordan, less discerning than Said and perhaps under his influence, protested