Abstract
This paper focuses on the manifestations of the American gaze post-9/11 as portrayed in the fictional narrative, Rebounding, by Jamilah Kolocotronis . Kolocotronis, a Caucasian American Muslim revert whose novels in the Echoes Series highlight the American Muslim revert’s personal, interpersonal and multicultural complexities of living in post-9/11 America. Those complexities are made obvious through the American gaze post-9/11 as intentional views, behaviors and actions made by certain members of the non-Muslim American majority towards white and non-white Muslims minority, due to affiliation with Islam. By using the post-9/11 counter-terrorism perspective on national security, this article problematise s the American gaze post-9/11 by explicating how the protagonist Joshua Adams’ material support to a Muslim fellow in Pakistan has brought serious repercussions on his personal and public life. Efforts are also devoted to delineate the transition of the American gaze post-9/11 from the private level, i.e., Joshua’s clash with his father Sam, to the public level, through Joshua’s incarceration by the Homeland Security agents. The findings reveal that the American post-9/11 gaze move beyond the realm of race and nationality into the space of religiosity. It positions Joshua in the grip of atonality, robbing him of his faith, selfhood, and citizenship on both private and public levels . Kolocotronis’ Rebounding expounds how the severity of the post-9/11 American gaze fails to fully establish a sharp distinction between innocent Americans and terrorists. An essential feature of civic engagement which is neglected in post-9/11America as illustrated in this novel is the recognition of the American Muslim revert's public service, virtues and achievements, which demonstrates the premises of separation and association with forces of terrorism. Keywords: American gaze; American Muslim Reversion Narrative; 9/11; war on terror; Rebounding
Highlights
The responses by Americans to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 are imbued with trauma-related sentiments which led to the subsequent distrust and fear of Muslims
The post-9/11 American gaze is the deliberate action rooted in a binary mindset and White Supremacist ideology
This paper engages the post-9/11 counter-terrorism lens to illuminate the manifestations of the post-9/11 American gaze in the Muslim fictional reversion narrative of Rebounding
Summary
The responses by Americans to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 are imbued with trauma-related sentiments which led to the subsequent distrust and fear of Muslims. Layton (2010) remarks that the tragedies of the 9/11 attacks “has influenced writers living in the United States” (10) in many ways This applies to writers of Muslim narratives, who express a wide engagement of issues and controversies emerging from the American milieu post-9/11. Writers of such genre include Umm Zakiyah and Jamilah Kolocotronis whose works trace different challenges for Muslim Americans in tandem with post-9/11 America. A significant example of post-9/11 American Muslim reversion narratives can be seen in the works of Jamilah Kolocotronis, the author whose novel Rebounding is the focus of this paper. The narrative problematises an important relationship, between the newly revert Joshua, and his ultra-nationalistic father Sam Adams Through this relationship, Kolocotronis addresses issues of recognition and misrecognition of minority communities and minority religion in post 9/11 America. How does the post 9/11 American gaze affect Joshua’s life both as an American and as a revert? The following section addresses this issue
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