MANUFACTURING FEAR IN POST-9/11 AMERICAN NOVEL

Year 2021, Volume: 13 Issue: 2, 917 - 926, 30.08.2021

M Ikbal M Alosman , Raihanah M. M Ruzy Suliza Hashim

https://doi.org/10.26791/sarkiat.852443

Abstract

To illustrate the systematic means by which the Muslim other is turned into a source of anguish and horror, we coin the term manufacturing fear. Manufacturing fear is the systematized process of creating and constructing fear of the other. It occurs through regularized procedures and techniques in an almost persistent mood. Through these methods, the other is shaped into an awful entity with more-beast-like qualities as his/her definitive features. In this paper, we aim to investigate how fear functions in three American novels, namely, John Updike’s Terrorist (2006), Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007), and Andre Dubus III’s The Garden of Last Days (2009). We also examine these horrifying images concerning the narratives’ exemplification of Muslims. Pertaining anecdotes where fright is manifested about the Muslim other are contextualized within the existent discourse of fear. Situating these novels within the post-9/11 atmosphere of distrust and trauma uncovers the underlying approaches employed by novelists to exemplify the Muslim other. In the three narratives, dreadful imageries have been presented by employing diverse techniques and approaches. Fear of the Muslim other has been manufactured through blood scenes, historical conflicts, and terrorist plots.

Keywords

Manufacturing fear, post-9/11 novel, Andre Dubus III, John Updike, Don DeLillo

Thanks

Thank you...

9/11 SONRASI AMERİKAN ROMANINDA KORKU ÜRETİM

Abstract

Sistematik yollarla Müslüman öteki bir ızdırap ve korku kaynağına dönüştürülmesini örneklemek için, korku üretme terimini icat ediyoruz (kullanırız). Üretim korkusu, diğerinden korkuyu yaratmanın ve inşa etmenin sistematik bir sürecidir. Bu tür korku, düzenli prosedürler ve teknikler aracılığıyla gerçekleşir ve neredeyse kalıcı bir ruh hali alır. Bu yöntemlerle, öteki korkunç bir varlığa ve daha canavar benzeri nitelikleri taşıyan bir ajana dönüştürülüyor. Bu makalede üç Amerikan romanında korkunun nasıl işlediğini araştırmayı hedefliyoruz, yani, John Updike’ın Teröristi (2006), Don DeLillo’nun Düşen Adamı (2007), ve Andre Dubus III’nin Son Günlerin Bahçesi (2009). Bu üç eserde, bu tür dehşet verici görüntüleri ve Müslümanları örneklendirmesi açısından da inceliyoruz. Müslüman öteki anekdotlarda, korku söylem içinde bağlamsallaştırılmıştır. Bu romanları 9/11 sonrası güvensizlik ve travma atmosferinde incelediyimizde, yazarların kullandığı Müslüman öteki temel yaklaşımlarını ortaya çıkarır. Bu üç eserde, korkunç görüntüler çeşitli teknikler ve yaklaşımlar kullanılarak sunulmuştur. Müslüman öteki korkusu kanlı sahneler, tarihi çatışmalar ve terörist planlarla üretilmiştir.

Keywords

Üretim korkusu, 9/11 sonrası roman, Andre Dubus III, John Updike, Don DeLillo

References

• Aldalala'a, Nath. 2013. “Contesting the Story?: Plotting The Terrorist in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man”. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature 5(1): 71-84.
• Alosman, M. Ikbal M. - Raihanah, M. M. - Hashim, Ruzy Suliza. 2018a. “Differentiation and Imperfectionality in John Updike’s Terrorist”. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies 24(2), 58-70.
• Alosman, M. Ikbal M. - Raihanah, M. M. - Hashim, Ruzy Suliza. 2018b. “Architectures of Enmity in Andre Dubus III’s The Garden of Last Days”. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies 18(4), 251-264.
• Altheide, David L. Terrorism and the Politics of Fear. Lanham: Altamira Press, 2006. Altheide, David L. “Fear, terrorism, and popular culture”. Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the “War on Terror. Ed. Jeff Birkenstein - Anna Froula - Karen Randell. 11-20. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010.
• Barnett, Anthony. “Too soon to look back”. 2002 https://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-911/article_248.jsp
• Cole, Juan. “Islamophobia and American foreign policy rhetoric: The Bush years and after”. Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century. Ed, John L. Esposito - Ibrahim Kalin. 127-142. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• DeLillo, Don. Falling Man. New York: Scribner, 2007.
• Dubus III, Andre. The Garden of Last Days. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
• Gamal, Ahmed. 2011. ““Encounters with Strangeness” in The Post-9/11 Novel”. Teaching American Literature 4(4): 50-76.
• Gray, Richard. After The Fall: American Literature since 9/11. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Gregory, Derek. The Colonial Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck - Nazir Nader Harb. 2014. “Post-9/11: making Islam an American religion”. Religions 5: 477–501.
• Hartnell, Anna. 2011. “Violence and The Faithful in Post-9/11 America: Updike's Terrorist, Islam, and the Specter of Exceptionalism”. MFS Modern Fiction Studies 57(3): 477-502.
• Jones, David Martin - M. L. R. Smith. 2010. “Terror and the Liberal Conscience: Political Fiction and Jihad—The Novel Response to 9/11”. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 33(10): 933-948.
• Mishra, Pankaj. “The End of Innocence”. The Guardian, 2007. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/19/fiction.martinamis
• Morley, Catherine. 2009. “The End of Innocence: Tales of Terror after 9/11”. Review of International American Studies 3(3-4): 82-93.
• Murshed, Syed Mansoob. “The crescent and the cross”. The clash of civilizations twenty years on. Ed. J. Paul Barker. 21-27. Bristol: e-International Relations, 2013.
• Pollack, Norman. “Manufacturing Fear: America’s Growth Industry”. 2015. http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/08/manufacturing-fear-americas-growth-industry/
• Pred, Allan. “Situated ignorance and state terrorism silences”. Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror, and Political Violence. Ed. Derek Gregory - Allan Pred. 363-384. New York: Routledge, 2007.
• Rose, Jacqueline. “We are all afraid, but of what, exactly?” The Guardian, 2003. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/20/iraq.world1
• Said, Edward. W. Orientalism. London: Penguin, 2003.
• Salehnia, Maryam. 2012. “Political Zionism and Fiction: A Study of John Updike's Terrorist”. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 3(3): 484-488.
• Tripathy, Nirjharini. 2015. “A Tale of Two Towers: Victims and Perpetratraors in Don Delillo’s “Falling Man” And Mohsin Hamid’s “The Relucant Fundamentalist””. Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) 3(1): 67-74.
• Updike, John. Terrorist. New York: Penguin, 2006.
• Žižek, Slavoj. Welcome to the Desert of the Real. London: Verso Books, 2002.