Islamophobia in "Homeland"? Analysis of the Popular US TV Series PDF Download

Author: Gernot Meyer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668376875
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Movies and Television, grade: 1,3, Bielefeld University (Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft: Anglistik), course: Analyzing and Interpreting Literary Texts: US American Literatures, language: English, abstract: This essay analyses one episode of the popular US TV series "Homeland", which has been said to be “TV’s most Islamophobic show” (cf. Al-Arian 2012) and decide if it contains islamophobic elements. In a first step, using a variety of different sources, islamophobia will be defined. Afterwards, the paper will link theoretical input about the effects of stereotyping to stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists in post 9/11 series such as "24" or "Sleeper Cell". It will then analyse one episode of Homeland and apply the theoretical input to decide whether or not the series contains islamophobic ellements. Finally, the findings of this paper will be concluded.

Author: Michael Simon
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668481458
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : de
Pages : 25

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Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2017 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Kultur und Landeskunde, Note: 1,7, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), Veranstaltung: US Empire Studies, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In fall of 2011, many critics celebrated Homeland as the best show of the season. One year later, similar reviews could be read. But since the pilot of the first season of the show, voices of strong disapproval mixed with the applause. These voices did not just criticize some logic errors in the story writing or sloppy acting (justifiably or not) but brought up a serious accusation: Homeland displaying islamophobic representations. As an example, Laila Al-Arian states that the show has the “insidious implication that Muslims, no matter how successful, well-placed and integrated, are a hidden danger to their fellow Americans”. I would like to analyze and explore the hints and underlying premises of the show on whether or not islamophobic tendencies and representations can be discovered and, if so, to which extend. Why is it important to ask these questions? In an article, The Guardian foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont describes the way “‘the other’ – those whom we fear or are suspicious of –“ is depicted in popular films and TV shows can reinforce “cultures of conflict” because “[p]opular culture both informs and echoes our prejudices”. The show claims to be close to reality and tries to showcase this for example by putting 9/11 witness footage and real politicians such as President Clinton, President Obama (who himself is a fan of the show) or Commander Colin Powell into the opening credits, which is an attempt to convey credibility and authenticity to the viewer. But that exactly is why it is important to consider how religious groups, minorities or ethnicities are represented. Popular culture is capable of reinforcing images and prejudices, and a show like Homeland that tries to appear credible to his viewer needs to be sensitive about this. Additionally, islamophobia is indeed a pressing issue. Ramon Grosfoguel argues in the Islamophobia Studies Journal that since 9/11 “anti-Arab racism through an Islamophobic hysteria[escalated all over the world”. One finding in a study about representations of Muslims in the Wall Street Journal was that the terms ‘Muslims’, ‘fanatics’ and ‘terrorists’ are absurdly used as “interchangeable co-words” (Joseph and D’Harlingue). These are just two examples that show a glimpse of the complexity and pertinence of islamophobia.

Author: John Corrigan
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469655632
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
The story of religion in America is one of unparalleled diversity and protection of the religious rights of individuals. But that story is a muddied one. This new and expanded edition of a classroom favorite tells a jolting history—illuminated by historical texts, pictures, songs, cartoons, letters, and even t-shirts—of how our society has been and continues to be replete with religious intolerance. It powerfully reveals the narrow gap between intolerance and violence in America. The second edition contains a new chapter on Islamophobia and adds fresh material on the Christian persecution complex, white supremacy and other race-related issues, sexuality, and the role played by social media. John Corrigan and Lynn S. Neal's overarching narrative weaves together a rich, compelling array of textual and visual materials. Arranged thematically, each chapter provides a broad historical background, and each document or cluster of related documents is entwined in context as a discussion of the issues unfolds. The need for this book has only increased in the midst of today's raging conflicts about immigration, terrorism, race, religious freedom, and patriotism.

Author: Carl Boggs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351543601
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The newly expanded and revised edition of The Hollywood War Machine includes wide-ranging exploration of numerous popular military-themed films that have appeared in the close to a decade since the first edition was published. Within the Hollywood movie community, there has not been even the slightest decline in well-financed pictures focusing on warfare and closely-related motifs. The second edition includes a new chapter on recent popular films and another that analyzes the relationship between these movies and the bourgeoning gun culture in the United States, marked in recent years by a dramatic increase in episodes of mass killings.

Author: Christine Agius
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 152611027X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
In what ways can we think through the complexities of identity? Identity is a contested concept, but it is more than a thing possessed by agents. Identity is contingent and dynamic, constituting and reconstituting subjects with political effects. In this edited book, identity is explored through a range of unique interdisciplinary case studies from around the world. Questions of citizenship, belonging, migration, conflict, security, peace and subjectivity are examined through social construction, post-colonialism, and gendered lenses from an interdisciplinary perspective. This combination showcases in particular the political implications of identity, how it is constituted, and the effects it produces. This edited collection will be of particular interest to students of international relations theory, migration studies, gender and sexuality, post-colonialism and policy-making at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Author: Deepa Kumar
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1608462129
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
In response to the events of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a "war on terror" ushering in an era of anti-Muslim racism, or Islamophobia. However, 9/11 alone did not create Islamophobia. This book examines the current backlash within the context of Islamophobia's origins, in the historic relationship between East and West. Deepa Kumar is an associate professor of media studies and Middle East studies at Rutgers University and the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike. Kumar has contributed to numerous outlets including the BBC, USA Today, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Author: Lan Dong
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440860890
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
This book provides detailed and engaging narratives about 25 pivotal events in Asian American history, celebrates Asian Americans' contributions to U.S. history, and examines the ways their experiences have shaped American culture. Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American history, society, and culture. This book presents key events in the Asian American experience through 25 well-developed, accessible essays; detailed timelines; biographies of notable figures; excerpts of primary source documents; and sidebars and images that provide narrative and visual information on high-interest topics. Arranged chronologically, the 25 essays showcase the ways in which Asian Americans have contributed to U.S. history and culture and bear witness to their struggles, activism, and accomplishments. The book offers a unique look at the Asian American experience, from the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century to the 2017 travel ban. Highlighting events with national and international significance, such as the Central Pacific Railroad Construction, Korean War, and 9/11, it documents the Asian American experience and demonstrates Asian Americans' impact on American life.

Author: Hanan Jasim Khammas
Publisher: Edicions Universitat Barcelona
ISBN: 8410500027
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
The 2003 Iraq invasion provoked an unprecedented phenomenon in the Iraqi literary scene: fiction exceeds poetry in production, critical reception, and market figures. New narrative genres, concerned with stories of wars and trauma, depict corporality and sexuality in their most material sense. Writing Through the Body argues that interest in the physical indicates a new perception of corporeality and, to show this, it traces a genealogy of the Iraqi body to uncover the complexity of its historical and socio-political discourses. Considering religious, social, and political factors, the body is examined in three semiospheres: Iraqi society and culture before 2003, the discourse of the war on terror as a semiotic interference, and contemporary Iraqi fiction as the result of the encounter between the two. This structure shows how corporeality was interrupted by and instrumentalised in war propaganda, and how new representations in fiction respond to the two spheres in conflict.

Author: Susan S.M. Edwards
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030688968
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Drawing upon law, politics, sociology, and gender studies, this volume explores the ways in which the Muslim body is stereotyped, interrogated, appropriated and demonized in Western societies and subject to counter-terror legislation and the suspension of human rights. The author examines the intense scrutiny of Muslim women’s dress and appearance, and their experience of hate crimes, as well as how Muslim men’s bodies are emasculated, effeminized and subjected to torture. Chapters explore a range of issues including Western legislation and foreign policy against the ‘Other’, orientalism, Islamophobia, masculinity, the intersection of gender with nationalism and questions about diversity, inclusion, religious freedom, citizenship and identity. This text will be of interest to scholars and students across a range of disciplines, including sociology, gender studies, law, politics, cultural studies, international relations, and human rights.

Author: Louis A. Cainkar
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610447689
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
In the aftermath of 9/11, many Arab and Muslim Americans came under intense scrutiny by federal and local authorities, as well as their own neighbors, on the chance that they might know, support, or actually be terrorists. As Louise Cainkar observes, even U.S.-born Arabs and Muslims were portrayed as outsiders, an image that was amplified in the months after the attacks. She argues that 9/11 did not create anti-Arab and anti-Muslim suspicion; rather, their socially constructed images and social and political exclusion long before these attacks created an environment in which misunderstanding and hostility could thrive and the government could defend its use of profiling. Combining analysis and ethnography, Homeland Insecurity provides an intimate view of what it means to be an Arab or a Muslim in a country set on edge by the worst terrorist attack in its history. Focusing on the metropolitan Chicago area, Cainkar conducted more than a hundred research interviews and five in-depth oral histories. In this, the most comprehensive ethnographic study of the post-9/11 period for American Arabs and Muslims, native-born and immigrant Palestinians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Yemenis, Sudanese, Jordanians, and others speak candidly about their lives as well as their experiences with government, public mistrust, discrimination, and harassment after 9/11. The book reveals that Arab Muslims were more likely to be attacked in certain spatial contexts than others and that Muslim women wearing the hijab were more vulnerable to assault than men, as their head scarves were interpreted by some as a rejection of American culture. Even as the 9/11 Commission never found any evidence that members of Arab- or Muslim-American communities were involved in the attacks, respondents discuss their feelings of insecurity—a heightened sense of physical vulnerability and exclusion from the guarantees of citizenship afforded other Americans. Yet the vast majority of those interviewed for Homeland Insecurity report feeling optimistic about the future of Arab and Muslim life in the United States. Most of the respondents talked about their increased interest in the teachings of Islam, whether to counter anti-Muslim slurs or to better educate themselves. Governmental and popular hostility proved to be a springboard for heightened social and civic engagement. Immigrant organizations, religious leaders, civil rights advocates, community organizers, and others defended Arabs and Muslims and built networks with their organizations. Local roundtables between Arab and Muslim leaders, law enforcement, and homeland security agencies developed better understanding of Arab and Muslim communities. These post-9/11 changes have given way to stronger ties and greater inclusion in American social and political life. Will the United States extend its values of freedom and inclusion beyond the politics of "us" and "them" stirred up after 9/11? The answer is still not clear. Homeland Insecurity is keenly observed and adds Arab and Muslim American voices to this still-unfolding period in American history.