Is Islamophobia Necessary in Neo-Orientalist Narratives? The Construction of Muslim Female Identity in Post-9/11 American Novel

Abstract

In the western or at least the American point of view, a good amount of Islamophobia is not a bad thing while representing Arab Muslims in literature. Maybe it’s even warranted or maybe even necessary. Focusing on Arab Muslims and Islamic culture as the “responsible†parties in 9/11, Islamophobic concepts on representing Arab woman has been an important part of post-9/11 American narratives at every level. As a collectively unique level of American literature, narratives provide an ideal opportunity to explore the amount of Islamophobia in the cultural constructions of the Arab Muslim woman in the post-9/11 period. This study finds that post-9/11 American writers have used the grief that turned into anger and made narratives as commemoration to pave the way for constructing Islamophobic identity. Analysis finds that Zoe Ferraris’ Finding Nouf (2009) and The Dawn of Saudi (2010) contribute to the rethinking of the status of Muslim woman within Islamic society and encourage the Muslim woman to be critical of the culture she lives in.