Representation of Islam in Post 9/11 English Novels

Aboolfazl Khademi | alireza anoshiravani

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URL :   http://research.shahed.ac.ir/WSR/WebPages/Report/PaperView.aspx?PaperID=43329
Date :  2015/08/12
Publish in :    Research Journal of Language,literature and Humanities


Keywords :Representation, Islam, English

Abstract :

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Abstract Present research aims to study the representation of Islam in post 9/11 English novels. To this aim 31 post 9/11 English novels were divided into eight categories based on the angles from which they had looked at 9/11 event, and one novel of each category, a better received one, was chosen through cluster sampling to be studied. As the study went on two categories were deleted for not being related to the subject. Thus six novels by Updike, DeLillo, Ferrigno, see, Halaby, and Kalfus were studied. Using representation theory and Foucaults discursive formation approach, the effort was taken to identify the latent and manifest discourses shaping and shaped by these texts as well as the charact eristics attributed to Islam and Muslims. The results showed that the discourse shaping the texts (war against terrorism) and discourses shaped by the texts (Muslims are all the same, Muslims are violent and promote violence, and Zionists are innocent) are in line with the power discourse in four of the six novels; whereas, in the remaining two novels, the approach taken toward power discourse is quite subversive. This of course signifies the presence of a multiple voice in the American society although the weaker voice is not heard as well as the loud voice. Keywords: Representation, Islam, Muslims, discourse, 9/11, novel.