REVERSE ORIENTALISM? BETWEEN “REPRESENTATION” AND ISLAMOPHOBIA: A THEORETICAL ENQUIRY

Abstract

Post-9/11 Western literary publications perpetuated Islamophobia by portraying Muslims as violent terrorists and misogynists. A bulk of criticisms that followed situated these novels under Edward Said’s structures of Orientalism, facilitating the argument for their Islamophobic implications. These endeavours have been reproached for using Islamophobia to shield away from critical scrutiny. Said’s theoretical concept of representation is itself criticised for being inconsistent and unrepresentable of itself. Thus, the criteria for locating post-9/11 texts as Islamophobic within the theoretical and analytical construing of Orientalism is, problematised. The crux of this study, therefore, is to illustrates the limitations of Said’s Orientalism while synthesising his theoretical and discursive views of Islamophobia. Thus, this study offers an intervention to the debate surrounding Said’s Orientalism and provides a model for theorising Islamophobic literature through Contrapuntal reading. A reading method, with roots in deconstruction, which delves into both textual and contextual examination of the supposed Oriental text.