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161947

“The Image of Islam in the Post 9/11 Era in John Updike’s Terrorist”

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Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

This research paper is an attempt to explore the image of Islam manifested in the post 9/11 American literary contexts, an image that revives in the Orientalist studies that intellectually emerged as Neo-Orientalism. In their discourses, many neo-Orientalists overemphasize a distorted image of Islam as an anti-modern, anti-democratic, and anti-Western ideology that is based on antagonism and terrorism against the non-Muslim Western ‘Other'. Consequently, Muslims are distortedly depicted as terrorists who hold a Jihadist agenda against Westerners generally and Americans particularly. These neo-Orientalist misrepresentations of Islam and Muslim have highly affected the post 9/11 American literary canon. Published in 2006, John Updike's Terrorist is considered one of the remarkable novels that centers on examining the nature of Islam and the features of Muslims, within the framework of neo-Orientalism. Pivoting around Edward Said's anti-Orientalist approach, this study aims at offering a critical reading of the depiction of Islam and Muslims in Updike's Terrorist. Discussion principally depends on analyzing different quotations from the novel, which represent the nature of Islam and the temperaments of Muslims. The study has concluded that Updike, in Terrorist, misrepresents Islam as an intolerant, antagonistic, anti-Other, and violent religion that constitutes an existentialist threat to the United States

DOI

10.21608/opde.2020.161947

Keywords

Islam, Muslims, Edward Said’s Orientalism, Neo-Orientalism, Updike’s Terrorist

Authors

First Name

Ahmed Hassan Mohamed Suliman

Last Name

Suliman

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Volume

72

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

23441

Issue Date

2020-10-01

Receive Date

2021-04-07

Publish Date

2020-10-01

Page Start

3

Page End

20

Print ISSN

1110-2721

Online ISSN

2735-3591

Link

https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/article_161947.html

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https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=161947

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2

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Original Article

Type Code

1,140

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education

Publication Link

https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

“The Image of Islam in the Post 9/11 Era in John Updike’s Terrorist”

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023