The topic of influence has always been a controversial one. The proximity of meaning between "influence" and "imitation" tends to put the reader, the author, and even the text on the alert since it could be understood as dirpinutive of the author's originality, and yet it could be the only means of ·.discovering and appreciating that originality. A major obstacle in the assessment of one author's influence over another is the presumption that Text A (the influencer) is supposedly a great work against which Text B (the influenced) must prove itself. Hence, while this battle between texts may take the form of sibling or Oedipal rivalry 1 in works of the same culture (even if of different nationalities) or language, it becomes a very complex one when Texts A and Bare not only of different cultures, but also of opposite ones such as East and West. The task gets even more problematic when Text A belongs to one of the most powerful literatures in the West (British) and Text B belongs to a relatively nascent literature in the East (Sudanese) and which has been colonized by the political svstem of the former. From this oersoective the studv of Joseph Conrad's influence on Al-Tayeb Salih becomes fraught' with many pitfalls: political, cultural, and even literary.
May Maalouf