Violence and the Faithful in Post-9/11 America: Updike’s Terrorist , Islam, and the Specter of Exceptionalism

Hartnell, Anna

doi:10.1353/mfs.2011.0066

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For Wood, Ahmad's personality fails to develop in the unfolding of the plot and this affects the authenticity of the entire narrative Wood asserts that, even though Terrorist bristles with Koranic references, the work still fails to adequately represent the ideas and images of religion. The preoccupation with religious portrayal in the text is also the focus of Hartnell (2011) who examines how Terrorist depicts the clash between monolithic religions and their relationships to violence. Both Wood's and Hartnell's studies attempt to interpret the major actions of the chief protagonist of the Terrorist from a religious standpoint.…”

Section: Recent Studies On and Related To Terrorist And The Attackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postcolonial Perspectives of Terrorism in John Updike’s Terrorist and Yasmina Khadra’s the Attack

Mabonga¹

2021

theijhss

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This study examines the postcolonial concepts of centralization and peripherization as depicted in terrorist by john updike and the attack by yasmina khadra. It also seeks to establish aspects of convergence between the centre and periphery as brought out in the two texts. Most studies within postcolonial framework have interrogated the tension immanent in the relationship between the west and the east in the context of cultural, political and racial subjugation of the former against the latter. However, studies which tackle the phenomenon of terrorism fiction within the postcolonial framework are scanty. This study attempted to fill the gap by investigating the occidental and oriental aspects of terrorism in terrorist and the attack. It also sought to determine elements of convergence in the relationship between the east and the west. The objectives of the study were concerned with examining the occidental perspectives in terrorist and the oriental perspectives in the attack. A third objective sought to explore concurrent elements in the occident vs orient dichotomy. The exploration exposed how terrorist portrays elements of domination and hegemony personified in the occident and how the attack depicts instances of protest and resistance typified in the orient. Within the paradigm of postcolonialism, the study adopted orientalism as postulated by edward said to examine how a dominating framework, the colonizer, exercises power and oppression against the protest and resistance of the marginalized, the colonized. The ideas of homi bhabha and gayatri spivak were also used to investigate the nature of resistance performed by the oppressed. A review of literature showed that the dichotomy of the centre vs the periphery is evident in fictionalization of terrorism hence the rationale for this study. The study relied on qualitative research design. Analysis of content involved a reading of the two texts under study which were purposively sampled. Subsequently, the occident and orient relationship is shown to be belied with power imbalances that occasions tension and conflict. An integrative approach that investigated how the tenuous relationship between the west and east can nevertheless find concurrence was also performed. This study shows that aspects of domination and hegemony are predominant in the occident's perception of the east and its consolidation of the centre. Further, discourse constitutes an integral cog of the western domination and imperialism. But the study also demonstrates that, the orient performs a mix of redemptive initiatives geared towards the resistance and contestation of the colonial discourse. Whereas the discordant nature of the occident vs orient relationship is rife with tension and incongruence, the study was still able to identify components of convergence which ultimately amalgamated the west vs east divide in the analysis of terrorist and the attack. The study concludes, the tendency of the west to ascribe unto itself power and authority of domination can be challenged and contested at...

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Section: Recent Studies On and Related To Terrorist And The Attackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postcolonial Perspectives of Terrorism in John Updike’s Terrorist and Yasmina Khadra’s the Attack

Mabonga¹

2021

theijhss

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“…As Anna Hartnell suggests in an essay on the novel, one of the interesting features of Terrorist is the bold way in which Updike's portrayal challenges the 'presumption of American unity and innocence that has formed the popular horizon for understanding the 2001 attacks'. 52 Going further than that, however, Updike also makes Ahmad the mouthpiece for a caustic appraisal of the society around him. Everywhere our gaze follows his, we are invited to see evidence of moral exhaustion and directionlessness.…”

Section: American Jihadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jihadi fiction: radicalisation narratives in the contemporary novel

Morrison

2017

Textual Practice

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As Ulrich Beck suggests in World at Risk, fear of Islamist extremism has become a dominant strand in contemporary perceptions of risk. In the media, a set of 'stock' radicalisation narratives have emerged in which, typically, a misguided loner is brainwashed into embracing a violent perversion of Islam. In the background, the wider Muslim community is accused of a dangerous complicity and complacency. This essay explores some notable attempts in fiction to unpick such popular radicalisation narratives. In novels by John Updike and Sunjeev Sahota, the psychological and faith dimensions of suicide bombing are a key focus, attempting to explore from the inside, how an educated young Muslim might be impelled along the path to martyrdom. In texts by Mohsin Hamid and J.M. Coetzee, the ideological staging of 'radicalisation' and 'fundamentalism' themselves is brought into question. Current counterterrorist measures include indefinite detention of US citizens without trial, while in the UK, over two million public sector workers have been recruited to the largest surveillance exercise ever codified in British law. In this context, the essay shows how recent fiction has attempted to trouble the frames of representation through which a perpetual state-of-emergency is passed off as our 'new normal'.

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“…Jones and Smith went further to declare that 'not only do the 9/11 novels offer little apprehension of the jihadist psyche, they offer even less in the way of hope for recuperating the possibility of urban political purpose ' (2010: 945). Hartnell (2011) maintained that whilst Don DeLillo's Falling Man and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close were written from the Western victims' viewpoints, Updike's choice to present a terrorist's viewpoint was 'a courageous attempt to pull away from the prevalent cultural tendency to privilege the category of 'trauma' in treatments of 9/11 that emerged in its wake and with notable rapidity in the years 2005' (478). However, Nirjharini Tripathy (2015 believed that DeLillo enabled his readership to access the mind-set of a terrorist and that he depicted Hammad, the 9/11 hijacker in Falling Man, as humane.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing Fear in Post-9/11 American Novel

Hashim¹,

M²,

Alosman³

2021

E-Şarkiyat İlmi Araştırmaları Dergisi/Journal of Oriental Scientific Research (JOSR)

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To illustrate the systematic means by which the Muslim other is turned into a source of anguish and horror, we use the term manufacturing fear. Manufacturing fear is the systematized process of creating and constructing fear of the other. It occurs through regularized procedures and techniques in an almost persistent mood. Through these methods, the other is shaped into a menacing entity with more-beast-like qualities as his/her definitive features. In this paper, we aim to investigate how fear functions in three American novels, namely, John Updike's Terrorist (2006), Don DeLillo's Falling Man (2007), and Andre Dubus III's The Garden of Last Days (2009). We also examine these disturbing images concerning the narratives' exemplification of Muslims. Pertaining anecdotes where fright is manifested about the Muslim other are contextualized within the existent discourse of fear. Situating these novels within the post-9/11 atmosphere of distrust and trauma uncovers the underlying approaches employed by novelists to exemplify the Muslim other. In these three narratives, imageries related to dread are presented by employing diverse techniques and approaches. Fear of the Muslim other is manufactured through blood scenes, historical conflicts and terrorist plots.

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Violence and the Faithful in Post-9/11 America: Updike’s Terrorist , Islam, and the Specter of Exceptionalism

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Postcolonial Perspectives of Terrorism in John Updike’s Terrorist and Yasmina Khadra’s the Attack

Postcolonial Perspectives of Terrorism in John Updike’s Terrorist and Yasmina Khadra’s the Attack

Jihadi fiction: radicalisation narratives in the contemporary novel

Manufacturing Fear in Post-9/11 American Novel

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