The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction

The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction

In this paper, we analyse John Updike’s Terrorist (2006) and Mohammad Ismail’s Desert of Death and Peace (2005) with the aim of examining the use of allusion in the depiction of 9/11 acts and the US occupation of Iraq. The comparison of the two novels, selected from two different literary traditi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Riyad Manqoush, Noraini Md. Yusof, Ruzy Suliza Hashim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan LInguistik, FSSK, UKM 2011
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/1/pp57_68.pdf
id ukm-972
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-9722016-12-14T06:28:27Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/ The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction Riyad Manqoush, Noraini Md. Yusof, Ruzy Suliza Hashim, In this paper, we analyse John Updike’s Terrorist (2006) and Mohammad Ismail’s Desert of Death and Peace (2005) with the aim of examining the use of allusion in the depiction of 9/11 acts and the US occupation of Iraq. The comparison of the two novels, selected from two different literary traditions, enables us to explore American and Arab viewpoints of recent history. By appropriating the discussions of Gerard Genette, Michael Leddy, William Irwin, John Campbell and Allan Pasco on the use of allusion in literature, we argue that when authors allude to history in their works, they either employ allusion to affirm or oppose certain notions. In other words, there are two main strategies of allusion: affirmation and opposition. Updike alludes to history to affirm that Arab terrorists are the main enemies of the USA and also to oppose the actions of those terrorists who give themselves the right to kill civilians. In contrast, Ismail asserts that the Iraqi and American people are equally victims of super-power Jews. Therefore, he exposes an opposition to the US occupation of Iraq and the irrational reaction of the US to 9/11. Both novels implicitly utilise 9/11 and the US occupation of Iraq but each one employs these incidents according to the viewpoint and cultural background of its author. Hence, the different employment of history reveals contestations of worldviews which are symptomatic of the ideological clashes between the East and West. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan LInguistik, FSSK, UKM 2011 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/1/pp57_68.pdf Riyad Manqoush, and Noraini Md. Yusof, and Ruzy Suliza Hashim, (2011) The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 11 (1). pp. 57-68. ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description In this paper, we analyse John Updike’s Terrorist (2006) and Mohammad Ismail’s Desert of Death and Peace (2005) with the aim of examining the use of allusion in the depiction of 9/11 acts and the US occupation of Iraq. The comparison of the two novels, selected from two different literary traditions, enables us to explore American and Arab viewpoints of recent history. By appropriating the discussions of Gerard Genette, Michael Leddy, William Irwin, John Campbell and Allan Pasco on the use of allusion in literature, we argue that when authors allude to history in their works, they either employ allusion to affirm or oppose certain notions. In other words, there are two main strategies of allusion: affirmation and opposition. Updike alludes to history to affirm that Arab terrorists are the main enemies of the USA and also to oppose the actions of those terrorists who give themselves the right to kill civilians. In contrast, Ismail asserts that the Iraqi and American people are equally victims of super-power Jews. Therefore, he exposes an opposition to the US occupation of Iraq and the irrational reaction of the US to 9/11. Both novels implicitly utilise 9/11 and the US occupation of Iraq but each one employs these incidents according to the viewpoint and cultural background of its author. Hence, the different employment of history reveals contestations of worldviews which are symptomatic of the ideological clashes between the East and West.
format Article
author Riyad Manqoush,
Noraini Md. Yusof,
Ruzy Suliza Hashim,
spellingShingle Riyad Manqoush,
Noraini Md. Yusof,
Ruzy Suliza Hashim,
The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
author_facet Riyad Manqoush,
Noraini Md. Yusof,
Ruzy Suliza Hashim,
author_sort Riyad Manqoush,
title The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
title_short The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
title_full The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
title_fullStr The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
title_full_unstemmed The use of historical allusion in recent American and Arab fiction
title_sort use of historical allusion in recent american and arab fiction
publisher Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan LInguistik, FSSK, UKM
publishDate 2011
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/972/1/pp57_68.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:32:02Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:32:02Z
_version_ 1777405025158430720

Similar Items