Myths of the veiled kingdom : representation and counter-representation of the middle east in selected contemporary bestsellers

Abstract EN

The present research stems from an interest in contemporary Western cultural stereotypes of the Middle East and the counter-discourse, which seeks to dismantle such images.

One can argue that a monolithic approach to the East still exists, which is based on an opinionated mythic discourse.

In his Mythologies, Roland Barthes notes that, in such a discourse, myth “distorts”.

It is “an inflexion” (1972, 129). Many bestsellers, which depict images of the Middle East, cater to a long-borne stereotype of a secluded “veiled” realm that conjures up sketches from The Arabian Nights.

For example, in her bestselling book, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995), Geraldine Brooks delineates her experience of travelling in several Islamic countries and her perspective of what she depicts as an exotic world, very much alien to Western culture, yet satisfying Western curiosity.

The paper, thus, raises the question of whether, at the turn of the twenty-first century, bestsellers from the Western world still represent and interpellate the Middle East by means of a mythic discourse, or, whether they have shifted to a more impartial vantage point.

Rajaa Alsanea's Girls of Riyadh (2007), among others, is an example of a bestseller from this pivotal region of the world, proposing a counter-discourse as it attempts to dismantle the myth and tell a different story.

The paper will shed light on selected bestsellers from the Middle East, which interpolate cultural misrepresentation.