Post-9/11 American Hegemonic (Imperial) Narratives: A Typical Version of Neo-Orientalism or an Alternative to Domination?

ABSTRACT

Hegemonic narratives have developed considerations of several perspectives on engaging with post-9/11 American imperialism and its system of power. This article deals with post-9/11 American novel, a version of neo-orientalist discourse that is inspired primarily by the American imperial ambitions and politics and the current public debates on Islamic terrorism, aggression, and backwardness. Employing insights from contemporary discussions around post-9/11 American hegemonic narratives and from contemporary hegemonic literature on the Middle East, the study examines narrative discourse to detect literary incitement to typological and racial representations. Analysis provides an examination of different perspectives concerning the origin of Islam in the 7th century in Arab peninsula, focusing on the first generation of Muslims’ intolerance towards non-Muslims and the Islamic heritage landscape as receptacle of the Middle East backward ideology and a place where radical ideology propagates the destruction of the west. Applying the notion of hegemonic literature as an exclusivist discourse, this study finds that pot-9/11 narratives and hegemony are symbiotic, reflecting the aspirations of the American policy in the Middle East region.

KEYWORDS:

• Hegemonic narratives
• post-9/11
• Arab
• America
• Islam

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Andrew Gross, professor of North American Studies at the University of Göttingen in Germany for his editorial remarks which made the arguments of this manuscript more cogent. I also thank Northern Border University for the technical support while writing this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interests was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mubarak Altwaiji

Mubarak Altwaiji is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English Language Skills, Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia. He is a visiting scholar at the North American Studies Department, University of Göttingen, Germany.