Report: Assessment of Article on Postcolonialism in Death on the Nile

This report provides a critical assessment of the article "Western Image of the Orient and Oriental in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile: A Postcolonial Reading," analyzing its strengths, weaknesses, and impact. The article, published in the Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, examines Agatha Christie's novel from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on the concept of orientalism. The report highlights the article's strengths, such as its academic credibility and innovative presentation of western cultural decentralization, while also pointing out weaknesses, including the need for a more detailed explanation of epistemological and ontological concepts. The assessment also includes suggestions for improvement and reflects on the article's impact on the student's critical thinking and understanding of the novel's themes.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Understanding the Contemporary World
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Critical assessment of the article: “Western Image of the Orient and Oriental in Agatha
Christie’s Death on the Nile: A Postcolonial Reading”
Strength and weakness: The article, “Western Image of the Orient and Oriental in
Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile: A Postcolonial Reading,” critically analyzed the Hercule
Poirot detective novel from the perspective of post colonialism. The major strength of the article
is that it is an academic it has been published by Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences
which is renowned for publishing several other scholarly articles. Since the article has already
been reviewed by other peer authors with their comments and opinions it adds immense
value to the article making it credible to the readers. The other major strength of the article
includes the facts of western cultural decentralization which the author presented in an
innovative manner so that it grips the readers’ attention right from the very beginning, “This
paper argues that Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (1937), a Hercule Poirot detective
novel offers an analysis from a postcolonial perspective because it includes traces of
Orientalism”. In addition, in order to give the readers a fair idea about orientalism breaks
down the three meanings of orientalism, - “Firstly, it refers to a body of academic studies
concerning the Orient and oriental peoples, cultures, languages, values….”
As per Özdemir et al (2014), the article on one hand critically evaluated the Edward
Said’s approach of orientalism as a scholarly discipline, on the other, the article brought out the
fact the false and negative portrayal of East and Eastern impact the people along with their value
as well as culture which can be considered as another point of strengths since it gives the
clear idea of orientalism to the reader.

2UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
However, while portraying the orient and oriental, Christie presented Egypt as the place
in terms of orientalism which continues discussing the portrayal of oriental inclusive of its
people, insights, views, values, concepts and so on which might not be understood by the
common audience unless they have a clear understanding of orient and orientalism. Even if
the article shed light on the epistemological and ontological concepts in relation with the novel, it
seems more critical manner would have presented the whole discussion stronger. The reason is
that without the detailed description of epistemological and ontological concepts cannot be
understood by a mere reader. Since the article fundamentally assessed the Edward Said's
methodology of orientalism as an academic discipline it seems it is a mere encyclopedic
narrative of orientalism in terms of its limitations or weakness and the reason is that the
introduction gives a very less idea of the main arguments of the article.
Suggestion of improvement:The article is in every sense an authentic journal article since
it fulfills all the basic dimensions of a good academic journal (Özdemir et al., 2014). However,
as the limitations suggests the article can be more valued and significant if it elaborate on the
epistemological as well as ontological concepts in a more critical way. For example, prior
detailed yet brief overview of both the concepts could have been given in order to help the
readers to understand in a better way.
Impact of the article:The impact of the article on me is significant since it helped me
to think critically and then analyze which I believe would increase the quest of knowledge
more.The article gave an in-depth knowledge about the novel by figuring out through
assessment that the entire thought of orientalism has been anticipated as the possibility of
western development of the idea called arrange from the viewpoint of west and inside the
occidental elaboration.The differences of opinion and arguments have enabled me to

3UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
understand that in order to become a successful artist, I would require a clear vision and a
critical perspective.

4UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Bibliography
Christie, A., & Suchet, D. (1937). Death on the Nile. London: Collins.
Özdemir, V., Kolker, E., Hotez, P. J., Mohin, S., Prainsack, B., Wynne, B., ... & Borda-
Rodriguez, A. (2014). Ready to put metadata on the post-2015 development agenda?
Linking data publications to responsible innovation and science diplomacy. Omics: a
journal of integrative biology, 18(1), 1-9.
Zengin, M. (2016). Western Image of the Orient and Oriental in Agatha Christie’s Death on the
Nile: A Postcolonial Reading. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 15(3),
837-866.