Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

Endeavoring to identify the causes of the abrupt upsurge of Islamophobia after the September 11 attacks, this thesis discovered that literature, specifically novels, has been exploited as a propaganda outlet, inciting hatred against Islam and Muslims, propagating religious, ideological, and political misleading misbeliefs and misconceptions, for western hegemonic ends. Through analyzing John Updike{u2019}s Terrorist and Salman Rushdie{u2019}s Shalimar the clown, examining their numerous narrative and propaganda techniques, this thesis has found that such post 9/11 terrorist narratives are not literary works of a substantial artistic value, as much as they are of an indispensable propagandistic influence. Updike and Rushdie, through assuming the role of war propagandists, embedded identical propaganda techniques within their narrative techniques to propagate the Global War on Terror anti-Islam and anti-Muslim messages, erupting the volcanoes of Islamophobia, by propagating for the clash of civilizations and the end of history theories. This was through the demonization of the Islamic religion and Muslim communities, depicting them as a fertile land for implanting and harvesting terrorism. The analysis integrated an interdisciplinary methodology of communication and narrative theories, differentiating between the artistic and propagandistic features of the novels, in an attempt to detect their hidden war propaganda messages, disguised as narratives

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