The Other is the Same: Cainite Violence and Mythmaking in Three Short Stories by Paul Bowles

Abstract

This article explores three short stories by Paul Bowles which introduce brothers and sisters – You Are Not I (1948), The Successor (1951) and The Fqih (1974) – under the lens of the myth of Cain and Abel. This article contextualizes the use of myth and mythmaking within Bowles’ narrative production. It examines how the US writer adopts and transforms the myth of Cain and Abel and analyzes how these Cainite brothers and sisters are othered through violence. It shows how Bowles addresses sibling rivalry and violent confrontation in terms of similarities, a theme that mirrors the same dichotomic fears – Same versus Other – in his the rest of his fiction.