Arab Occidentalism: Images of America in the Middle East

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When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, his foreign policy was at first seen to be the antithesis of that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Eid Mohamed highlights how in the wake of this change of US administration, Arab media, literature and cinema began to assert the value of America as a potential source of `change' while attempting to renegotiate the Arab world's position in the international system. Arab cultural representation of the United States has variously changed and developed since 9/11, and again in the wake of the protests in 2011 and the ensuing political turmoil in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and of course, Syria. Taking this into account, Mohamed offers an examination of the ways in which stereotypes of America are both presented and challenged through cinema, fiction and the wider media and intellectual production. Rather than seeing this process as one where the Middle East reacts to and attempts to negotiate with western modernity, Mohamed instead highlights the significant interplay of religion, pop culture and politics and the role they play in shaping the complex relation between America and the nations of the Middle East.

Reviews

'Eid Mohammed's study of Arab representations of the United States identifies and explores a counter-discourse to American Orientalism that he calls Arab Occidentalism. Eager to deconstruct the delimiting binaries of the clash of civilisations thesis. Mohamed makes audible a diversity of Arab voices whose resistance to prevailing Orientalist narratives is varied, complex and crucial.' - Brian T. Edwards, Northwestern University, author of After the American Century : The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East, 'This well-researched, innovative and relevant book offers needed perspectives that will be of value to scholars and students of stereotypical images and cultural studies. This work is a much-needed contribution to Middle East literature.' - Jack G. Shaheen, PhD, author of Reel Bad Arabs : How Hollywood Villifies a People, 'In an increasingly polarised world, where Muslims, and particularly Arab Muslims, and often the very concept of Islam itself, are seen by the West as the 'other' that threatens the very foundations of Western civilisation, this is a timely study that attempts to examine the situation from the other end of the perspective.' - Professor Rasheed El-Enany, author of Arab Representations of the Occident : East-West Encounters in Arabic Fiction, 'Especially since 9/11, much has been written about the West's - particularly America's- skewed perceptions of Arabs and Muslims. But perceptions are a two way street and there has been relatively little scholarship exploring how 'they' see 'us'. Arab Occidentalism fills an important gap.' - Lawrence Pintak, author of The New Arab Journalist and America, Islam and the War of Ideas.

Author Bio

Eid Mohamed is a Balsillie School of International Affairs Postdoctoral Fellow (Waterloo) and Adjunct Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Department of History, University of Guelph. He holds a PhD in American Studies from George Washington University.