“Pulp Orientalism”: Endosmotic banality, terra necro and “splintered” subjects in Dan Fesperman’s The Warlord’s Son

Abstract

This essay draws attention to the much-neglected arena of Orientalism in pulp fiction. Although Orientalism in popular culture has received considerable attention, it is restricted to the representations of the Orient in science fiction, television, electronic media and Hollywood films. Following 9/11, pulp literature has emerged with a renewed force in American hard-boiled fiction, specifically in the genre of the “literary thriller” and the “international political thriller”. Unlike the Orientalism in canonic fiction, pulp Orientalism forges an endosmotic “style” of civilizational Othering by reducing Oriental topographies into death worlds (terra necro), while depicting its subjects as splintered, unstable and mutable. Drawing on the writings of Robert Irwin and Achille Mbembe, this essay attempts a conceptual exposition of pulp Orientalism through Dan Fesperman’s The Warlord’s Son.

Keywords:

• pulp fiction
• American Orientalism
• post-Orientalism
• Robert Irwin
• Achille Mbembe