'Hey, Come on, We’re All Americans Here': The Representation of Muslim-American Identity in John Updike’s Terrorist

Authors

  • Ulla Kriebernegg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2011.3.13

Keywords:

identity, Americanism, Islam, terrorism

Abstract

 In his ‘post-9/11 novel’ Terrorist (2006) John Updike portrays Ahmad, an American high school boy struggling to come to terms with his hyphenated ArabIrish-American identity in a multi-ethnic US American environment. Trying to redefine his place as a citizen in a ‘western’ culture, the stereotypical ascriptions of ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ influence the protagonist’s self-perception and his identity formation as he “fits the racial profile of white anxiety” (Davis 2001: 48). Updike’s representation of a young Muslim-American in post-9/11 New Jersey employs all sorts of clichés and has been heavily criticized by reviewers for the stereotypical and hollow depiction of his young protagonist. In this paper, Updike’s fictional interpretation of Islamist terrorism as a literary response to 9/11 and the “Clash of Civilizations” is investigated.

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Published

2011-11-13

How to Cite

Kriebernegg, U. . (2011). ’Hey, Come on, We’re All Americans Here’: The Representation of Muslim-American Identity in John Updike’s Terrorist. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, 3(1), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2011.3.13

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011): BELLS - volume 3

Section

LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Ulla Kriebernegg

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