The Imperialistic Nostalgia in Jean Sasson’s American Chick in Saudi Arabia: The Study of Life Narratives after September 11th

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

This article focuses on the notion of “life narrative” in Sasson’s American Chick in Saudi Arabia (2012) and tries to elaborate the relationships between the cultural, political discourses after 9/11 and the re-emergence of “life narratives” through the postcolonial perspectives of Edward Said and Sidonie Smith. To this end, notions like “identity” and “gender” are studied. It is argued that the re-emergence of “life narratives” in the multicultural era, despite its re-defined notion of the “self,” can only be traced back to prevalent neo-imperialist and Islamophobic inclinations in the West after 9/11. In other words, through foregrounding the hierarchy of “us vs. them,” such works perpetuate the recent neo-imperialist leanings in the West. However, the article’s attempt to disclose the effect of such works on the recent dissemination of Islamophobia in the West is complicated by the fact that even though Sasson’s “representation” of Saudi women would be considered to be affected by the neo-imperialist discourse, the fact, still, remains that they have been victimized by the suppressing Saudi regime.

Keywords

References

- منابع
Appia, K. Anthony. (1992). “Identity, Authenticity, Survival: Multicultural Societies and Social Reproduction.” In Amy Gutmann (Ed). Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Behdad, Ali, and Juliet A. Williams. (2010). “Neo-Orientalism.” In Globalizing American Studies, B.T. Edwards and DilipnParameshwar (Eds.). Cgicago, Chicago University Press, 283-299.
Burwell, Cathrine. (2014). “A Too-Quick Enthusiasm for the Other.” In Lisa K. Taylor and Jasmin Zine (Ed.) Muslim Women, Transnational Feminism and the Ethics of  Pedagogy : Contested Imaginaries in Post-9/11 Cultural Practice. New York: Routledge, 133-151.
Chae, Youngsuk.(2008). Politicizing Asian American Literature: Towards a Critical Multiculturalism. London: Routledge.
Connolly, William E. (1991). Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiation of Political Paradox. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Davidson, Robyn. )2001(. ‘The Trip Trap’, edited extract of her introduction to The Picador Book of Journeys, Guardian (Saturday Review), 4 August: 1-6.
Dean, Jody. (2005). “Žižk against Democracy.” Law, Culture and Humanities. Vol.1. 154- 177.
Hall, Stuart. ( 1996). Introduction: Who Needs Identity? In S. Hall and P. Du Gay (Eds). Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage.
Hart, Francis R. (1970). “Notes for an Anatomy of Modern Autobiography.” New Literary History, 1: 486–511.
Ho, Christina. (2010). “Responding to  Orientalist Feminism.”Austrailian Feminist Studies, 25,66: 433-439.
Holland, Patrick and Graham Huggan. (1998).Tourists with Typewriters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Travel Writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Lentin, Alana and Gavan Titley. (2011). The Crises of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age. London: Zed Books.
Lewis, Bernard. (2002). What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. New York: HarperCollins.
Lisle, Debbie. (2006). The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Massey, Doreen. (1999). ‘Imagining Globalization: Power-Geometries of Time-Space.’ In Global Futures: Migration, Environment and Globalization., Avtar Brah, Mary Hickman and Mairtin Ghail, eds. Basingstoke: Macmillan,  27_44.
Mills, Sara. )1991(. Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women’s Travel Writing and Colonialism. London and New York: Routledge.
Naryan, Uma. (1997). Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and the Third World Feminism. New York: Routledge.
Philips, Ann. (2007). Multiculturalism without Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Principe, Concetta V. (2015). Secular Messiahs and the Return of Paul’s ‘Real’: A Lacanian Approach.  New York: Palgrave.
Said, Edward. )1978(. Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
Sasson, Jean. (2012). American Chick in Saudi Arabia: A Memoir. New York: Liza Dawson Associates.
Sim, Sturat. (2001). The Routledge Companion of Ppostmodernism. London: Routledge.
Smith, Sidonie. (2001). Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpretaing Life Narratives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 22, Issue 2
January 2018
Pages 445-469

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics