American Literature Important Concepts

1- Orientalism
• It is the title of a book by Edward Said, the Palestinian American professor, critic
and political activist, written in 1978.

Said gives a simple definition of the term as “ outsider interpretation of Arab-Islamic

cultures”
The book describes how the West (America and Europe) sees the East or the Orient
(countries of North Africa, Asia and the Middle East). In other words, how the Occident
sees the Orient.
Said sheds light on some of the shortcomings of orientalism such as exaggeration of
cultural difference, making assumptions of west superiority, clichéd representation of
the east and essentialism (attributing the attitude of a minor group to the whole group or
even the whole race)
The book traces examples of the lowly image drawn by the west for the east as
uncivilized barbarians, inferior to, and less evolved than the West, therefore justifying
military conquest, colonization and economic exploitation
Source of the word: the part of the world where the sun rises the countries to the east
of the Mediterranean sea

the Orient vs. the occident

• Said gives examples of some of the European literary works that propagated the
master/slave image about the orient inhabitants:
1- The character of Caliban vs Prospero in The Tempest by Shakespeare
2- The character of Bertha Mason in Bronte’s Jane Eyre
3- The character of Friday in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
All of them introduce the image of the white European colonizer as master and
indigenous inhabitant as a slave therefore justifying military conquest, colonization and
economic exploitation.
• Said also sheds light on other documentary works that stressed this negative
image about the east such as Modern Egypt (1908) written by Lord Cromer during
the British occupation of Egypt.
2- Cultural Hegemony
A theory of Antonio Gramsci, the Italian philosopher and politician in Marxist philosophy
it means:
 • the social, political and economic dominance of a ruling class over the other
classes in a society through
• manipulating the culture of that society, its beliefs, its values to their benefit
• until their principles become the only valid ideology
• Therefore justifying the status quo as the most beneficial for all other classes
although in fact
• it benefits only this ruling class
meaning of cultural hegemony in political science:
➢ the dominance of an imperial power over other subordinate states
➢ usually an implied form of power
➢ Threat of intervention
➢ rather than direct rule resulting from military invasion
3- Cultural Difference
➢ Meaning: inability of the colonizing countries to understand the different cultures
of the indigenous or native inhabitants of the colonized countries.
➢ It is used as a marker of inferiority, signifying a hierarchy where European culture
is seen as superior, and all other cultures, that are “different” because they depart
from European norms, as inferior.
➢ This binarism, dualism or dichotomy was caused by xenophobia on the part of the
colonizer and led to fanaticism on the part of the colonized
➢ this gave birth to the concept of “clash of civilizations”.
4- Clash of Civilizations
Title of a book by the American political scientist Samuel Huntington, 1996.
Argues that today’s wars will be fought not between countries but between cultures and
religions.
Explains how religion replaced politics in the post cold war period
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapse of Communism, a new world order
appeared where, the pre- cold war multiple political ideologies disappeared.
People started to look for alternatives that would give them a sense of identity, belonging
meaning and purpose.
Huntington notes that with:
1. the end of western hegemony over the east and
2. ”the multi-directional interaction among all civilizations” meaning western
civilization influence and is influenced by other smaller less powerful world
cultures every culture started to search for a distinct identity that would provide a
feeling of stability.
 - Religion was able to meet this need
- Politics was replaced with religion.
- Major religions in the world started to fill this vacuum.
- Yesterday’s usual believers showed greater commitment and harsher practices
- Such cultures rather than interact will clash
- He warns that Islam has become the new enemy of the west after the end of
communism. “Islamophobia”
5- Hybridity
origin in biology
➢ used in post colonial theory by Homi Bhabha to deconstruct the duality or
opposition
➢ It advocates the creation of a hybrid in the contact zone which accommodates the
reciprocal or mutual exchange between the two poles.
➢ In his book The Location of Culture, Homi Bhabha gives examples of this cultural
hybridity like Edward Said and Toni Morrison, where the Western and Oriental
cultures contact and create a third rich and unique culture.
The three types of hybridity are cultural, political and linguistic
Types of hybridity
1- cultural hybridity
➢ also referred to as multiculturalism
➢ a simple definition is: the existence of diversity of cultural or ethnic groups within
a society, all of them have equal rights and opportunities, and none is ignored or
regarded as unimportant.
➢ it advocates equality despite difference
➢ America is an example of a multicultural nation.
2- Political hybridity
a model of governance where representatives of the different factions (ethnic, religious,
local, etc.) of a society are represented
in literature it is a critique of the Eurocentric cannon which excludes other narratives
it is also a counter narrative that emerged to defy European essentialist thinking
the idea of “many Englishes”
3- Linguistic Hybridity
➢ has its origin in music
➢ also called “polyphony”, and “carnivalesque” terms coined by Mikhail Bakhtin,
Russian philosopher and critic
➢ In literature, it rejects the idea of the dominance of a single a “single vision” of
situations and ideas
➢ advocates the existence of simultaneous points of view where all voices are valid
➢ admits plurality of independent and unmerged voices where there is dialogic
sense of truth rather than monologic
6- Islamophobia
➢ A recent term that spread after the September 11th terrorist attacks on America.
It means irrational fear, hatred, and prejudice against Islam as a religion and
Muslims as a religious minority.
➢ Negative emotions that sometimes lead to violent behaviors toward Muslims.
➢ A form of xenophobia ‫ رهاب االجانب‬and racism except that Muslims are not a race.
It connects nationality (Arabs and middle east countries) with politics (terrorism,
fundamentalism, radicalism ‫) (التطرف‬
➢ The early uses of the term did not have the same meaning as in contemporary
usage, as they described a fear of Islam by liberal Muslims and Muslim feminists,
rather than a fear or dislike/hatred of Muslims by non-Muslims
➢ In America it led to stereotyping and profiling Muslims of ethnic origins who turned
from what Nadine Naber described as “an invisible group in the United States into
a highly visible community that directly or indirectly has an effect on the United
States' culture wars, foreign policy, presidential elections and legislative tradition.”
➢ Read the article o “Islamophobia” on Wikipedia.
 Arab American Literature
Summary and Critical Analysis
➢ In the wake of some terrorist attacks in the neighbourhood, Khaled, a Muslim
American writer, is visited unexpectedly by two homeland or government security
officials ((Bartlett and Carl) tracking suspects. They dropped in to examine his
presupposed ties to terrorist groups.
➢ The visit came as a result of reports from Khaled’s ex- girlfriend (Beth), a local
librarian (Shelley) and a strip dancer (Jean Sommers).
➢ Khaled’s welcoming reception to the two agents reflect his two things: 1. his
confidence in the USA as a free democratic country and 2. his fear which any
Arab/Muslim American in his place would experience.
➢ The two agents tell Khaled that they understand that people do not feel
comfortable on receiving a visit from them and they try to comfort him that their
visit is “random” and “casual”
➢ The seemingly casual and random visit gradually turns to a full- blown
investigation and racial profiling where the audience get puzzled between a
feeling of sympathy with those agents having to do such a job, and hatred of their
implied racism.
➢ Foregrounding such contradiction, El-Guindi sound objective in evaluating the
positive as well as the negative sides of the Patriot At Law.
➢ The nightmarish stressful investigation reaches climax where psychological harm
escalates to physical violence and sexual abuse and insult where the two agents
pull down Khaled’s trousers to inspect “a secret tattoo” which they claimed he and
Asfoor showed each other on their meetings as a sign of solidarity. This is the
most painfully tragic scene.
➢ The two agents try to use whatever they find in Khaled’s house as an evidence to
incriminate him. With the development of action, it became clear they have come
with a pre-concept about him first because of the reports and second because of
his ethnicity and religion.

➢ The play sheds light on some of the hardships Muslim Americans of ethnic roots
face after 9/11 as a result of applying the Patriot Act Law. The play draws some
of these hardships like:
1. racial profiling, stereotyping, hatred crimes and physical aggression
2. the double criteria of the American law where Muslims have suddenly become
the “other” and are treated as second class citizens and
3. the feeling of besiege.
➢ Khaled symbolizes the Arab/Muslim American minority in America, while Bartlett
and Carl symbolize the majority. Their failure to pronounce his name properly is
 symbolic of the difficulty or even the lack of communication between the Orient
and the West.
➢ Through one of his long insulting speeches to Khaled, Bartlett sums up the
Amerian foreign policy towards incriminating “the other” when he tells
Khaled:“Yesterday the Irish and the Poles, today it’s you. Tomorrow it might be
the Dutch.”
➢ Khaled’s character remains ambiguous and blurred until the end of the play. We
never know for sure if he is indicted or not because nothing of the objects could
be considered a definite evidence of his indictment. This foggy or shadowy
atmosphere reflect the uncertainty of the accusations framed against Khaled.
Nothing is revealed to be a substantial evidence of his terrorist tendencies, actions
or ties to terrorists.
➢ Khaled’s reading inclinations for example could be seen either way as a normal
trend among the majority of Americans or as an evidence of his terrorist
tendencies.
➢ Bartlett’s hasty interpretations of whatever object he finds as evidence of Khaled’s
involvement make the audience realize how bias he is against Arabs. The
audience can evaluate this evidence objectively and finally realize that none of
theses findings is sure evidence to be taken against Khaled.
The play poses two important questions:
1. Should the individual’s civil rights be sacrificed for the safety of the majority
And
2. How far are the government officials free in dealing with the suspects?
El Guindi managed to overcome a structural challenge in the paly, being set in one place
through:
1. change of light when a new character appears from the past
2. Projection of the flashback scenes and freezing the original scene on stage
instead of narrating them
3. Projecting also the imaginary scenes of the supposed meetings between Asfoor
the terrorist and Khaled
This technique helped to:
1. increase dramatic intensity,
2. provided more information,

3. Gave dynamism and mobility to the play by giving a chance to the audience to
evaluate the situation through watching the characters in action rather than
narration
➢ The foggy and shadowy atmosphere that overwhelms the play helped to intensify
the panic and emphasize the uncertainty and confusion we feel about Khaled’s
possible indictment.
➢ All the female characters in the play are played by one actress. The aim here is
to highlight the similarity of their indecisive and illusory remarks and comments
that are mere speculations about Khaled.
➢ Their foggy comments stem originally from their racism and the preconception
that if the police is making investigations about an Arab, then he must be a
terrorist. They are influenced by the two agents attempt to make a case against
Khaled. They appear as tools used by the two agents to frame him.
➢ El Guindi says that he tries to humanize his characters than politicize them. The
characters in the play appear more as real humans than as politically oriented.