Neo-liberal Narratives or Neo-orientalism: Reflections from Post-9/11 American Novel on Arab Woman

Abstract

This study argues for an articulation of ‘neo-orientalism’ in order to situate neoliberal agendas (ideology) as an expression of neo-orientalist discourse in a globalized world. Analysis explores these attitudes on the status of Arab Muslim woman by referring to The Dawn by Homa Pourasgari (2009), which extensively elaborates on the dichotomous comparison between the oppressive East and the neoliberal West and how that is reflected in the life of Arab woman. This study on the status of Arab woman in Islam reflects on narrative writers’ attitudes related to neoliberal ideology, religion, and geo-politics and to prove the necessity for an analysis based on conventional selection of subject matter. Focusing on neoliberal thought, the study details how neoliberal ideology operates from above, akin to a form of military intervention, and below, attracting minds and hearts, through a full-blown cultural program to exercise neoliberal influence, while penalizing societies that refuse to participate. Therefore, neo-orientalist discourse is governed by the brutal instrumentalist tools of liberalization, democratization, and modernity. Neo-orientalist discourse implements these terms through the terminology of neoliberal logic; it is a form of convergent rhetoric that holds practices and discourses of both to establish a ground for geo-political and cultural dominance.