Abstract

Postcolonial society faces various problems, which revolve around the complexity of formulating identity and alterity. Who is the I, who is the other and what is the relationship between the I and the Other are big postcolonial questions. Hassan Hanafi is one of the postcolonial thinkers who attempts to answer this problem by reformulating identity, alterity and the relationship between the two, while implementing Occidentalism: an attitude of rejecting the other as a principle basis, but accepting it as material for study. This thesis examines Hanafi's formulations and ideas. Using the deconstruction 'method', this thesis dismantles Hanafi's claims about Occidentalism and his formulation of the Occidental I and Other, while showing his autodeconstruction. After reviewing the weaknesses of Hanafi's Occidentalism and the inadequacy of his formulation of the postcolonial I and the Other, while remembering the importance of solving the problem of identity and alterity in the postcolonial realm, this thesis reformulates the postcolonial I and the Other by asserting that the I is the other, the other is the other (the other who is always different from him/her 'self', or the other without identity), and otherness or hospitality towards others needs to be promoted in the corridor of agreement without coercion for the sake of peaceful and mutually beneficial life in the global era.