Literary Marketability in Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma

Abstract

This study addresses Fadia Faqir's novel My Name is Salma (2007) as promoting the marketability of the Arab woman writer who sells stereotypes and preconceived notions about the representations of Arab Muslim female subjects to the West. It specifically examines the ways in which Faqir uses a discourse that confirms cultural stereotypes, targets mainly a Western reader and enforces Western criticism of certain Islamic practices regarding polygamy, alcohol consumption, eating pork, Muslim women's veiling, and blind obedience to husbands, thus, producing a superficial, reductionist understanding of Islam. My Name is Salma is perceived as a culturally marketed literary work that reinforces a rigid Western discourse about Islam and the fragility of the position of Arab Muslim women, thus, positioning the novelist as mainly targeting Western audiences. Keywords: Arab women writers, cultural stereotyping, Fadia Faqir, marketability propaganda.