IMAGES OF THE UMMAH AND MUSLIMS IN THE NOVELS OF THE DUNE CYCLE: IMITATION AND SIMULATION

Abstract

Background. The author analyzes the texts of the Dune cycle in contexts of the achievements of interdisciplinary historiography, which proposed universal methods that allow analyzing “Oriental” images in literature through the prism of constructing and deconstructing the narratives that form the image of Islam.
 Purpose. The purpose of the article is an “Orientalist” reinterpretation of Islamic images in the novels belonging to the Dune cycle, including the texts of the original cycle and prequels presented by Dune, Dune Messiah, Dune. Butlerian Jihad and Dune. Paul.
 Materials and methods. The author uses the methodological tools offered in intellectual history and studies of nationalism, including the concept of the invention of traditions, which allows us to analyze the images of Islam in science fiction as one of the invented traditions of American mass literature using the texts of the Dune cycle as sources corpus. Orientalism as a method is used to analyze Muslim motifs in the prose of F. Herbert, B. Herbert and K. Anderson, which, as the author believes, were inspired by political, ideological and religious stimuli. The author believes that the orientalist approach is an effective interpretative model for an interdisciplinary analysis of American science fiction as a space for the development of Islamic images.
 Results. The texts of the Dune cycle are reinterpreted as attempts to assimilate and imitate the images of Islam in popular culture. Oriental political and ideological backgrounds for the development of Muslim images in American science fiction are studied. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the political message broadcast by the novels of the Dune cycle with the help of images of Islam. The author analyzes Muslim images through the prism of their imitation and simulation in the novels that form the Dune cycle. The author believes that the analyzed texts, being part of the wide discourse of Western cultural and political Orientalism, form the image of Islam accessible for understanding and consumption in the mass culture of modern society.