Abstract

This study analyzes Inaam Kachachi’s novel The American Granddaughter through Slavoj Žižek’s theory of the master-signifier. A master-signifier is a signifier that refers only to itself, thereby halting the endless chain of signification and stabilizing ideological meaning. The analysis focuses on two issues: how the novel presents the United States as a master-signifier that shapes the protagonist Zeina’s identity, and how American policy in Iraq is depicted as paradoxical, concealing systemic violence beneath claims of liberation and freedom. The study shows that Zeina’s belief that the American invasion will bring peace and freedom rests on the tautological, referential, and performative logic of the master-signifier, which the novel presents as reinforcing U.S. hegemony in Iraq. To maintain its status as master-signifier, the United States—as portrayed in the novel—employs various forms of violence, particularly systemic violence, that subject Iraqis to all forms of oppression, similar to those experienced under Saddam Hussein, under the banner of real freedom and peace. Ultimately, many Iraqis—especially Zeina—recognize that the United States, functioning as a symbolic-ideological construct in Kachachi’s novel, is an arbitrarily elevated signifier whose claimed ideals function as schemes that subjugate Iraq and deprive its people of even their basic needs.

Key Terms: Master-Signifier, Systemic Violence, Slavoj Žižek, The American Granddaughter, The United States