Muslim Representation in the Comic Novel Habibi

Presenter Information

SAFA AL-SHAMMARYFollow

Presentation Type

Paper

Abstract

My study investigates how the recent comics towards Arabs in the comic industries have a variety of graphic interventions inside real historical crises in visual medium. When we consider it in terms of modern times, world history, it is necessary to consider the geographic and time difference between West Asia today and Arabian Nights. It is important to keep in mind that the Arabian Nights are mostly tales of entertainment; we are not reading history or anthropology. Background of the Nights is not a historical context to West Asia today. Resisting the insight of applying fictional stories as culture. I will also be looking at the representations of Muslim women that appear in popular literature in the United States, especially the immensely popular subgenre of first-person “oppressed Muslim women” stories. The Muslim woman always presented as a veiled and subservient. according to the writers who write about them. The fact that these narratives communicate any geographical, ideological, or economic uniqueness is negated by the fact that they are packaged in an iconic orientalist image. The combination of story and packaging has a single effect: it allows their American audiences to empathize with, but also distancing themselves from, the political processes that result in anti-female regimes coming into being.

Keywords

Neo-Orientalism, Habibi, Fundamentalism, Arabian Nights, Empire


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Muslim Representation in the Comic Novel Habibi

My study investigates how the recent comics towards Arabs in the comic industries have a variety of graphic interventions inside real historical crises in visual medium. When we consider it in terms of modern times, world history, it is necessary to consider the geographic and time difference between West Asia today and Arabian Nights. It is important to keep in mind that the Arabian Nights are mostly tales of entertainment; we are not reading history or anthropology. Background of the Nights is not a historical context to West Asia today. Resisting the insight of applying fictional stories as culture. I will also be looking at the representations of Muslim women that appear in popular literature in the United States, especially the immensely popular subgenre of first-person “oppressed Muslim women” stories. The Muslim woman always presented as a veiled and subservient. according to the writers who write about them. The fact that these narratives communicate any geographical, ideological, or economic uniqueness is negated by the fact that they are packaged in an iconic orientalist image. The combination of story and packaging has a single effect: it allows their American audiences to empathize with, but also distancing themselves from, the political processes that result in anti-female regimes coming into being.