The rise of fundamentalist narratives - a post-9/11 legacy? Toward understanding American fundamentalist discourse

Abstract

Why would a group of writers act in a way that appears to readers as literary fundamentalism, such as post 9/11 American writers? Most of the effective causes underlie superior behaviors, namely, neo-orientalist ideology and imperial interests quite enough to threaten the survival of scholarly literature on 9/11 attacks. Fundamentalist narratives have increasingly become the concern of critics and readers over the last two decades. This study aims to explore post-9/11 writers’ fundamentalist tendencies that have increasingly become a part of contemporary narratives on a larger scale in political narratives. A central inquiry in the study is how adherence to fundamentals, perceived as a basic principle for a profession or a new feature in the literature, may develop into fundamentalism. It also investigates the ways in which fundamentalist narratives racialize a collective subject described as “Islam and the Muslims” in the aftermath of 9/11. This category became more prominent in fundamentalist narratives that are in harmony and solidarity with the state and its agenda, ignoring its imperial attitude toward the Middle East. Analysis refers to Updike’s Terrorist as an example of fundamentalist text that manifestly identifies Arabs, their intentions, their culture, and their religion as barbaric and aggressive. The circumstances under which these narratives developed and influenced American writers’ attitudes are also explored.

Keywords

• fundamentalist narratives
• arab
• post 9/11
• the united states
• islam