Orientalism in John Updike’ s Novel Terrorist

One of the characteristics of American literature since September 11 has been its preoccupation with the discourse of terrorism as writers attempt to comprehend both the reasons and results of the terrorist attacks. The long history of antagonistic conflict between the West and Islam always re-surfaces in the outbreak of new atrocities, and literary responses to September 11 reflect this tendency. As we enter second decade after September 11, the response to September 11 has mostly been in the form of a discourse on terrorism. John Updike, a veteran novelist of great repute, tries to understand the reasons and results of terrorism. However, his efforts fail to engage effectively with the “Other” as he depends on Orientalist biases and stereotypes. The author’ s work portrays individual terrorists as stereotypes of Muslims and then connects those stereotypes to a constructed discourse about Islam. His fictional terrorists’ individual actions are presented as manifestation of their backward and violent religion. These characteristics are then used to contrast with a progressive and enlightened West. The binaries Updike is building on, was anticipated in the theoretical field by Edward Said, the late Palestinian-American literary theoretician. Said states that Western discourse creates prejudices towards non-Western cultures by labeling them as the “Other.” He argues that this discourse continues to manifest itself after September 11. Based on Said’s Orientalism theory, the present paper analyzes John Updike’s novel Terrorist’ s depiction of Islam and Muslims.

Keywords

Orientalism, Islam, Civilization, Democracy, Stereotyping.