Forbidden Endearment: Using Marxist Sources to Understand 'The Map of Love' Liam Mackay Byrd College

A heartily revered guerrilla fighter by the name of Ernesto Guevara once said: “If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.” This sentiment is intended to express militant disdain for imperialism in a manner not dissimilar to, albeit slightly less subtle than The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif. The story details the strife between British imperialists and Egyptian nationalists, utilizing a cross-cultural romance as a means of resisting the imperialism wrought about by the British. In order to salvage a supplementary assimilation of historical relevance, it is imperative for readers both casual and close to understand imperialism and its inherited criticisms on a level that goes deeper than simply scratching the surface. Throughout this composition will be discussions about the definition of imperialism, further clarification utilizing Leninist thought and Marxian terminology that calls attention to aspects of imperialism and resistance to its gloomy impedimenta.

Before investigating the novel, it might be prudent to define and concisely detail the concept of imperialism. One could typically define imperialism as a precarious political system in which a centralized force governs colonized...