Orientalism – a Netflix Unlimited Series

930901-0313

Orientalism – A Netflix Unlimited Series A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of The Orientalist Representations of Arab Identity in Netflix Film and TV By: Stefan Maatouk

Peace and Conflict Studies Bachelor’s Thesis Spring 2021 Supervisor: Ivan Gusic Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Abstract

Orientalism was a term developed by post-colonial theorist Edward Said to describe the ways in which Europeans, or the West, portrayed the Orient as inferior, uncivilised, and wholly anti- Western. Netflix Inc., the world’s largest subscription based streaming service, which as of 2018, expanded its streaming venue to over 190 countries globally, is the wellspring of knowledge for many people. Through the multimodal critical discourse analysis of 6 Netflix films and television programmes (Stateless, Gods of Egypt, Messiah, Al Hayba, Sand Castle, and Fauda) the study examines the extent to which the streaming giant is culpable in the reproduction of Orientalist discourses of power, i.e., discourses which facilitate the construction of the stereotyped Other. The results have shown that Netflix strengthens, through the dissemination and distribution of symbols and messages to the general population, the domination and authority over society and its political, economic, cultural, and ideological domains. Using Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis combined with a social semiotic perspective, this study endeavours to design a comprehensive methodological and theoretical framework which can be utilized by future researchers to analyse and critique particular power dynamics within society by exposing the dominant ideological world-view distortions which reinforce oppressive structures and institutional practices.

Keywords: Netflix, Orientalism, Othering, Critical Discourse Analysis, Media, Power, Knowledge, Ideology, Hegemony

Word Count:13,979

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

“There is nothing mysterious or natural about authority. It is formed, irradiated, disseminated; it is instrumental, it is persuasive; it has status, it establishes canons of taste and value; it is virtually indistinguishable from certain ideas it dignifies as true, and from traditions, perceptions, and judgments it forms, transmits, reproduces.”

- Said, 1978

iii

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

List of Abbreviations CDA – Critical Discourse Analysis IDFs – Ideological-discursive Formations WANA – West Asia North Africa

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM ...... 2 1.2 AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 2 1.3 RELEVANCE TO PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES RESEARCH...... 3 1.4 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ...... 4 1.4.1 A Look at Orientalist Discourse in Cinema ...... 4 1.5 DELIMITATIONS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...... 5 1.5 THESIS OUTLINE ...... 6 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 7

2.1 DISCOURSE ...... 7 2.1.1 Power & Knowledge: A Foucauldian Conceptualization of Discourse ...... 7 2.1.2 Discourse as Social Practice...... 8 2.1.3 Ideology, Hegemony, and the Media ...... 9 2.2 ORIENTALISM AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE ‘OTHER’ ...... 11 2.2.1 Orientalism: A Post-colonial Culture ...... 12 2.2.2 Orientation Towards the Other ...... 13 2.3 THEORY AS AN ANALYTICAL TOOL ...... 14 III. METHODOLOGY ...... 15

3.1 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ...... 16 3.2 FAIRCLOUGH’S THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL ...... 17 3.2.1 Text Analysis and Social Semiotics ...... 17 3.2.2 Discursive Practice ...... 19 3.2.3 Sociocultural Practice ...... 19 3.3 CHOICE OF MATERIAL ...... 20 IV. ANALYSIS ...... 22

4.1 TEXT ANALYSIS ...... 22 4.1.1 Exclusion, Inclusion, and Prominence ...... 22 4.1.2 Point of View ...... 24 4.1.3 Construction of the Stereotyped Other ...... 26 4.1.4 A ‘Regime’ of Truth ...... 29 4.2 DISCURSIVE PRACTICE ...... 31 4.2.1 Intertextuality ...... 32 4.3 SOCIOCULTURAL PRACTICE ...... 34 4.3.1 Order of Discourse ...... 35 V. CONCLUSION ...... 37

5.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS REVISITED ...... 37 5.2 DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...... 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 40

PRIMARY SOURCES ...... 40 SECONDARY SOURCES ...... 40

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

List of Figures

Figure 1: (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:63) ...... 9 Figure 2: (Said, 1978:28) ...... 12 Figure 3: (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:68) ...... 17 Figure 4: (Incognita, 0:03:11) ...... 23 Figure 5: Netflix plot description for Alex Proyas' (2016) Gods of Egypt ...... 23 Figure 6: (Proyas, 2016, 0:44:03) ...... 24 Figure 7: (Proyas, 2016, 0:44:04) ...... 24 Figure 8: Messiah promotional poster (McTeigue, et al., 2020) ...... 25 Figure 9: Netflix trailer for Messiah (McTeigue, 2020, 0:00:05)...... 26 Figure 10: Netflix plot description for Samer Barqawi's (2017) Al Hayba ...... 27 Figure 11: (Episode 1, 2017, 0:37:15) ...... 27 Figure 12: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:04:13) ...... 28 Figure 13: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:04:15) ...... 28 Figure 14: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:30:18) ...... 29 Figure 15: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:20:32) ...... 29 Figure 16: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:04:55) ...... 30 Figure 17: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:05:01) ...... 30 Figure 18: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:08:38) ...... 31 Figure 19: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:08:47) ...... 31

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

I. Introduction

“Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, semiliterate primitive monkeys. I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people don’t use toilet paper and forks” (Gunia, 2019). These were the callous words uttered by Tucker Carlson — conservative pundit and host of one of America’s highest rated weekly ‘news’ programs Tucker Carlson Tonight (Joyella, 2021) — during a 2006 radio discussion regarding the Iraqi War. Unbeknownst to Mr. Carlson and what is sure to leave him dumbfounded is that the first recorded use of le papier toilette was in 6th – 8th century China, whereas the product was not commercially available on the US market until about 1857, despite being today’s most commonly used method of ‘cleaning’ in North America. ‘Environmentally concerning’ and ‘unhygienic’ are a few words that have been used to describe this supposed superior modus operandi of arse cleansing, which leaves visitors to the USA from the ‘third world’ bewildered at the lack of water-based washing methods. (Nosowitz, 2015). As for the fork, the inaugural employment of the tool as a dining utensil was first documented within the noble courts of the 7th century Byzantine Empire. It only began to appear in Italian cookbooks as late as the 13th century before spreading across the Western reaches of the European continent (Ward, 2009).

Nonetheless, the extent to which these claims to empirical reality may be considered true or false is not of immediate concern. The question in which this study aims at deducing is, rather: to what extent are these bigoted, intolerant, and dehumanizing claims and distorted images — those pertaining to Arab identity and culture — present in Netflix film and television? Whether it is the devout fundamentalist bent on the complete desolation of ‘Western civilization’, the silk-stocking oil sheik, the war-waging Jihadi, a monolithic fantasy land characterized by flying carpets and exotic princesses, or the “primitive monkey” ignorant to the corporeity of bowel towels and pronged dining utensils, Western conceptualizations of the Orient have facilitated, through the implementation of colonial bureaucracies and discursive practices, the domination, restructuring, and subsequent authority over the Orient (Said, 1978:19).

These sort of fabricated views and overly generalized depictions of the Orient have been adopted eagerly by a “mass of writers […] poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators” alike (Said, 1978:20). While Orientalist portrayals of Arab identity can be traced back to Western colonial and imperial establishments, the contemporary globalized world has reinforced, by way of the mass media, racialized portrayals of Orientalist stereotypes (Said, 1978:41).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

1.1 Research Problem

Terms including racism, xenophobia, and discrimination have been used to refer to processes “whereby social groups categorize other groups as different or inferior, on the basis of phenotypical or cultural markers” (Castles, et al., 2014:59). Such processes function to legitimize the exploitation and exclusion of a particular ethnic group through economic, social, and political domination. Through the development of various legislation and administrative policies, the power of the majority or dominant group is sustained while marginalized groups are perpetually disenfranchised. Often, these discriminatory processes are the result of stereotypical presumptions maintained through “socially constructed markers of difference” (Castles, et al., 2014:59-60). After the tragic attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City on September 11th, 2001 and the USA’s subsequent proclamation of a so-called ‘global war on terror’, a vast majority of racial discrimination has been oriented towards Arab minorities within Western societies and Arab countries deemed a threat to Western civilization (Castles, et al., 2014:60).

One way in which the demonization of Arabs is maintained is through ideological state mechanisms such as the mass media (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:15). The media functions to fulfil the interests of the ruling class through the dissemination of hegemonic ideological structures while presenting these prevailing ideologies as transparent or common sense (Fairclough, 1995:25). Media hegemony describes the process in which dominant ontological principles are circulated throughout the public and private spheres of social life, shaping the culture, beliefs, and values of a society (Altheide, 1984:477).

Netflix, the world’s largest and most fashionable subscription-based streaming service, is a prime example of the media’s role in the production and reproduction of Orientalist discourse. The streaming platform has been successful towards the advancement of state and political power and has had undeniable effects on the global perceptions of the ‘Other’ (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:746). Therefore, this study will be interested in dealing with how Arab identity is misrepresented through the discursive practices of Netflix film and television.

1.2 Aim and Research Questions

Discursive practices are one of the many facets that function to maintain and reproduce hegemonic and oppressive power structures or orders of discourse through the naturalization of ideological- discursive formations, or ideologies that “come to be seen as common sense” (Fairclough, 1995:95). Therefore, by using Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis, the aim/objective of

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 this study will be to deconstruct and subsequently challenge the exaggerated representations of both Arab and Western identity, which have come to dominate “economic, political, cultural, and ideological domains of society” (Fairclough, 1995:76). Thus, this study will hope to engender some form of empowerment and change through a systematized awareness and critique of ideology while refuting the myth that media is somehow a “mirror to reality” (Fairclough, 1995:82). Lastly, this study aims to familiarize its audience with critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a methodological approach, with the purpose of raising awareness around the manipulative nature of media; “so that the reader would be competent enough to detect the biased and exploitative language and develop a critical approach towards” discourse (Amirian, 2012:3).

The primary research question which will help guide the investigation throughout this study is as follows:

How successful can the multimodal critical discourse analysis of tele-filmic data be in addressing issues linked to Orientalist representations of the ‘Other’ within visually oriented discourse material?

Moreover, a set of secondary questions will help guide my analysis of the data:

1. How is Arab and Muslim identity constructed through Netflix film and TV?

2. How is Western identity constructed through Netflix film and TV?

3. What conclusions can be made in regard to the relationship between Netflix and the order of discourse?

1.3 Relevance to Peace and Conflict Studies Research

Johan Galtung, Norwegian sociologist widely regarded as the father of peace and conflict studies research, wrote in (1969:168) that if peace and conflict studies is to be regarded as action against violence, then our definition of violence must be sufficiently comprehensive to address all forms of it. Correspondingly, Galtung (1969:168) defines violence not only as direct or physical violence but as “the difference between the potential and the actual, between what could have been and what is”. In other words, structural or indirect violence refers to violence which is structurally embedded and conducive of asymmetrical power relations or “unequal life chances” (Galtung, 1969:170-171). Therefore, while the misrepresentations of Arab and Muslim identity may not constitute what Galtung describes as personal violence, an instance where a person causes direct harm to another (Galtung, 1969:171), Orientalism facilitates the marginalization, barbarization, and dehumanization of former colonial subjects and casts “them in the position of subjected Others” (Aljubouri, 2020:10).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Galtung (1990:291) expands his definition of violence to include the concept of cultural violence, which refers to aspects of culture that are implicitly employed as a way of legitimizing direct or structural violence. Cultural hegemony, a term developed by Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, refers to the domination of society through the manipulation of economic, political, religious, or cultural and ideological domains by the ruling class (Fairclough, 1992:91-92). “It is hegemony, or rather the result of cultural hegemony at work, that gives Orientalism […] durability and strength” (Said, 1978:23).

The notion of discourse is a fundamental element that has received considerable notice within the field of peace and conflict studies research. While there exists many conflicting and overlapping definitions of the term, it is widely referred to in social theory, including the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault, as the “different ways of structuring areas of knowledge and social practice” (Fairclough, 1992:3). Discourse, in this sense, refers not only to the use of language, but other semiotic modes including visual images and possesses the capacity to “position people in different ways as social subjects” (Fairclough, 1992:3-4). Likewise, exaggerated, and demeaning images of Arabs and Muslims in tele-film constitutes and reproduces discourse, or knowledge, in a manner that places them in the position of ‘subject race’ or subjected Other (Fairclough, 1995:6).

Discourse is inextricably linked to notions of power, which is another foundational element within peace and conflict studies research. Foucault describes power as being “exercised within discourses in the ways which they constitute and govern individual subjects” (Weedon, 1987:113). Thus, Orientalist discourse constitutes a form of power relations that attaches to it “strategies of domination” in so far that it possesses authority over “the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern” (Diamond, et al. 1988:185).

1.4 Previous Research

Critical discourse analysis is a multidisciplinary methodological and theoretical approach insofar that it has been used within a wide range of academic fields including linguistics, the social sciences, and film and media studies. Therefore, this section will provide a brief overview of the research surrounding Orientalist representations of Arab and Muslim identity within film.

1.4.1 A Look at Orientalist Discourse in Cinema

The media has multiple functions insofar that it can inform, socialize, entertain, educate, and ensure political participation. The influence of the mass media on our daily lives is steadily becoming more obvious due to an increase in the rate of technological change and rampant globalization. Media is, in

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 many cases, the wellspring of information for many people and has become both the producer and distributor of knowledge. The globalization of the mass media coupled with the corporate expansion of media conglomerates on an international scale has ushered in a plethora of new platforms in which information can be disseminated. Therefore, the mass media, media order of discourse in particular, should be regarded as an important element towards social and structural change (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:742).

It is therefore possible to claim that cinema is one of the many facets whose purpose is to fulfil the various functions of the mass media (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:742). “Cinema […], which is of particular importance for the conduct of today’s political struggles, creates an arena of cultural representation and determines how reality will be grasped through representational forms” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:742). Cinema, therefore, possesses the capacity to strengthen asymmetrical relations of power through ideological distortions of reality and the reproduction of stereotypical imagery. Films such as the Ten Commandments (1956), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Midnight Express (1978) – to name a few – can thus be conceptualized as embodying Orientalist constructions of the stereotyped Other. These Orientalist depictions manifest and generate meaning through the use of various semiotic modes, i.e., visual, linguistic, auditory, spatial, gestural, et cetera (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:743). “Social semiotics does not accept that texts are made ‘by accident’: each aspect of tele-film contributes to its meaning potential in a meaningful way” (Iedema, 2001:201).

Despite the controversies surrounding cinematic representations of minorities in film, Orientalist portrayals of Arab and Muslim identity in tele-film continues to spread at an unprecedented rate (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:743). And while several studies have been conducted pertaining to the Orientalist representations of Arab and Muslim identity in film and television, this study provides a particular niche considering Netflix’s ascendance and subsequent rise in paramountcy within the world of subscription-based streaming services.

1.5 Delimitations and Ethical Considerations

When engaging in the critical analysis of a communicative event, analysts will often find themselves, to some extent, associated with the culture or society under study. This means that the analyst is vulnerable to the “taken-for-granted, common-sense understandings expressed in the material” which are under investigation (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:21). Because CDA is a qualitative method of analysis, subjective biases can serve as a hindrance to one’s study. Since the researcher is the “primary instrument of data collection” and qualitative research focuses largely on subjective experience and interpretation, validity is often difficult to achieve (Creswell, 2009:195). Therefore, researchers must

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 be aware of their own subjective agenda, biases, and “how their interpretation is shaped by their background” (Creswell, 2009:195).

Ethics must always be taken into consideration while conducting a critical discourse analysis. CDA aims at deconstructing oppressive power structures and promoting free and democratic societies, making its pursuit exceedingly moralistic and ethical. Oftentimes, CDA is culpable of appropriating the very practices it recognizes as Machiavellian by attempting to inculcate its own hegemonic discourse (Graham, 2018:186). “Above all, its major moralizing element betrays an interest not so much in finding the truth as in proclaiming it” (Graham, 2018:186). Finally, CDA analysts must be heedful when considering who may be using the analysis and for what purpose while at the same time questioning whether or not the study is “helping to naturalize other equally but differently ideological practices” (Fairclough, 1995:83).

While these issues may present a hinderance to this particular study, there exists possible solutions. The researcher must try to distance oneself from the material. For example, the research can visualize oneself as an anthropologist, “who is exploring a foreign universe of meaning in order to find out what makes sense there” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:21).

1.5 Thesis Outline

The remainder of the thesis will be divided into 4 chapters. Chapter 2, Theoretical Framework, will focus on deliberating two main theories: discourse and its interrelated concepts, i.e., power-knowledge, ideology, hegemony, and media discourse; and Orientalism and the construction of the Other. The theoretical framework will facilitate a deeper understanding of the phenomenon in which this study endeavours to deduce. Chapter 3, Methodology, will introduce Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis as a method and clarify the significance of social semiotic analysis of tele- filmic data. Chapter 4, Analysis, will conduct a social semiotic and intertextual analysis of 6 Netflix films/TV programmes: Stateless, Gods of Egypt, Messiah, Al Hayba, Sand Castle, and Fauda. The chapter will end with a discussion into the wider sociocultural implications of the data. Chapter 5, Conclusion, will summarize the research findings while making recommendations for future research.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

II. Theoretical Framework

This chapter will present the theoretical perspectives relevant to the choice of method and research problem. The chapter will begin with a detailed overview surrounding the notion of discourse as theory and its role “in the social construction of the world” (Jørgensen, et al., 2005:4). In order to facilitate a multidimensional and diverse understanding of discourse, Foucauldian ideas of power-knowledge, ideology, and Gramscian notions of hegemony in relation to media orders of discourse will be introduced for later operationalization. Secondly, given that the study is grounded on Western representations of the East, a brief account of Edward Said’s Orientalism in synthesis with theories surrounding the construction of the Other will be discussed.

2.1 Discourse

The following section will provide a general discussion into the notion of discourse as defined by French philosopher Michel Foucault and within the field of sociolinguistics. In critical discourse analysis, theory and method are intertwined (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:4). Thus, in order to avoid reiteration, this section will focus on the theoretical concepts of CDA including power, ideology, and hegemony. Chapter 3 will focus on CDA strictly as a methodological approach.

2.1.1 Power & Knowledge: A Foucauldian Conceptualization of Discourse

Amidst the essentially unquantifiable waves and ripples flowing through the social sciences as a result of Michel Foucault’s contributions is his concept of discourse and of discourse analysis as a method (Fairclough, 1992:37). Foucault’s earlier ‘archaeological’ work contributed to two major theoretical insights. First, he focused on discourse as constitutive of the social world, its subjects, and objects of knowledge. Secondly, Foucault was concerned with the interdependency of discourse practices or intertextuality; an excavation of the hidden knowledge behind historically oriented texts, how they draw upon one another, and the interrelated and transformative nature of such practices (Fairclough, 1992:39-40). “[…] any given type of discourse practice is generated out of combinations of others and is defined by its relationship to others” (Fairclough, 1992:40). Although Foucault would describe discourse analysis as the analysis of “verbal performances”, he is concerned not with the linguistic structure of language but with discursive formations, a sociohistorical system of rules which produce the dominant conceptualizations of ‘knowledge’ (what can and cannot be said) at particular times, spaces, and institutional settings (Fairclough, 1992:40). Here, however, knowledge is conceived not as something that is internal to the agent, but as ‘statements’ about the world that have been externally

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 structured. Foucault is concerned not with the objectivity of such claims to knowledge but to the extent to which they dominate within a group or institution. These epistemes or “knowledges”, Foucault explains, are essential constituents to the power relationships of a society (Miller, 1990:117). “Every point in the exercise of power is a site where knowledge is formed. Conversely every established piece of knowledge permits and assures the exercise of power” (Miller, 1990:117). The Foucauldian understanding of power is conceived as being a productive force; a force that produces its own subjects and constitutes its own social world, rather than something which individuals possess and exercise over others (Jørgensen, 2002:37).

While Foucault’s contributions have left a huge impact on the social theory of discourse and its relationship to knowledge and power, Fairclough (1992:39-38) calls for a synthesis between Foucauldian notions of discourse and linguistically oriented understandings of the term. Despite having provided a rich set of theoretical claims, Foucauldian conceptualizations of discourse fail to include the “discursive and linguistic analysis of real texts” (Fairclough, 1992:56). Fairclough (1992:56) also criticizes Foucault for exaggerating the extent to which social subjects are manipulated by power and for underestimating group agency and the possibility of change through struggle. These problems, explains Fairclough (1992:57), are “connected with the absence of a concept of practice” or an absence of “real instances of people doing or saying or writing things”. In other words, while Foucault chooses to undervalue practice as an element of social change, Fairclough acknowledges that it “cannot be reduced to the implementation of structures” and that practice ultimately helps constitute structural and social change (Fairclough, 1992:58).

2.1.2 Discourse as Social Practice

Fairclough, like other critical discourse analysts, envisions discourse as a form of social practice, and discourse analysis as the analysis of the relationship between text and sociocultural practice (Fairclough, 1995:7). Text, according to Fairclough’s theory, extends beyond linguistic structures to other semiotic modes of communication or meaning making including visual, gestural, and musical resources. Social practice “implies a dialectical relationship between a particular discursive event and the situation(s), institution(s), and social structure(s) which frame it” (Brandl, 2017:4). The concept of practice is fundamental insofar that it facilitates a critical understanding of the relationship between social interaction and social structures. And while social structures define a set of prospective outcomes, practice is seen as a way of regulating the selection of those outcomes (Brandl, 2017:5).

Thus, Fairclough positions himself alongside poststructuralist epistemes in suggesting that while discursive practices maintain pre-existing power structures, they also possess the capacity to

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 reshape and challenge them “by using words to denote what may lie outside the structure” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:65). Where Fairclough differs from poststructuralist traditions, however, is that he advocates towards an interdisciplinary approach to the critical analysis of a communicative event, calling for a unification of both the “macro-sociological analysis of social practice” and “detailed textual analysis” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:65-66). So, while macro-sociological traditions highlight the influence of social structures over social practice, linguistically oriented methods, including Fairclough’s approach to CDA, recognizes both the constitutive and constituted nature of discourse or discursive practices (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:66). Discourse, according to Fairclough, “is both a form of action through which people can change the world and a form of action which is socially and historically situated and is in a dialectical relationship with other aspects of the social” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:62).

2.1.3 Ideology, Hegemony, and the Media

Ideology, like power, is a concept that holds particular weight within the realm of linguistically oriented discourse studies. Discourse is regarded as being “the pre-eminent linguistic material of ideology” (Fairclough, 1992:5). In other words, discursive practices that contribute to the reproduction of asymmetrical power relations are understood as ideological effects. Hence, critical discourse analysis focuses not only on the discursive practices which shape representations of the social world, but to the extent to which these discursive practices advance the interests of a particular social group (Jørgensen, 2002:63). Norman Fairclough describes CDA as a framework which aims to methodically explore the

[o]ften opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts and (b) broader social and cultural structures, relations and processes […] how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power […] how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony.

Figure 1: (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:63) Therefore, social structures function as ideological domains that determine the outcome and condition of historical and contemporary events. By reproducing and reshaping these social structures, events themselves also function as ideological domains in which the interests of particular groups or entities are realized (Fairclough, 1995:72). While social structures may refer to “political and economic structures, relationships in the market, gender relations, relations within the state and within institutions of civil society”, they “are most immediately of a discoursal/ideological nature” (Fairclough, 1995:73). Accordingly, Dutch linguist Teun A. van Dijk does not limit the study of

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 ideology to linguistic structures but extends the discipline to involve other semiotic resources including images, signs, sounds, film, gestures, and so on (Aljubouri, 2020:37). Discourse is not only representative of such discoursal/extra-discoursal structures but is also — through the material effects of ideology — constitutive of them, its subjects, and relations (Fairclough, 1995:73). The power to regulate discourse is widely regarded as the power to maintain a particular set of discursive practices “with particular ideological investments in dominance over alternative […] practices” (Fairclough, 1995:2).

What makes CDA a critical approach to discourse analysis is that it takes a contemptuous view of ideology as a vehicle through which oppressive power structures are reproduced. These ideological investments are especially effective in achieving domination through the preservation of patriarchal norms and between marginalized ethnic and cultural groups (Fairclough, 1995:17-18). Ideologies, according to Fairclough (1995:23), are most pervasive through naturalized implicit propositions or “in the unsaid” and are deeply manifested in many aspects of individual and collective life, positioning individuals as institutional subjects. Institutional subjects, explains Fairclough (1995:27), are implicitly constructed in accordance with the norms of ideological-discursive formations (IDFs). IDFs are described as “a sort of speech community”, and while several IDFs may exist within a single institution at a time “there is usually one IDF that is clearly dominant” (Fairclough, 1995:27). A common feature of dominant IDFs is the ability to naturalize and uphold ideological representations or present dominant ideologies as “non-ideological common sense” (Fairclough, 1995:28). Consequently, individuals are often unaware of the ideological practices they are subjected to (Fairclough, 1995:23).

The ideological dimensions of hegemony can be conceptualized in terms of what Fairclough (1995:12) calls orders of discourse or “the totality of discursive practices associated with a particular social domain or institution, and boundaries and relationships between them”. For Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, hegemony, or cultural hegemony, is understood as the domination and authority over society and its political, economic, cultural, and ideological domains (Fairclough, 1995:76). However, despite being understood as the leadership of one group over another, hegemony “is never achieved more than partially or temporarily as an unstable equilibrium” (Fairclough, 1995:76). Hegemony, then, is conceived not only as dominance but as the existence of competing elements which endeavours to challenge prevailing ideological facets and establish new ones. By challenging dominant meanings or orders of discourse, subjects are readily equipped with the resources to properly resist structures that function to naturalize different ideological practices (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:76). Thus, the concept of hegemony provides us with the capacity to analyse the relationship between discursive

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 practices and wider sociocultural practices involving oppressive power structures (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:76). “[…] discursive practice can be seen as an aspect of a hegemonic struggle that contributes to the reproduction and transformation of the order of discourse of which it is part” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:76).

In his critique of Western capitalism and the capitalist state, Gramsci makes a distinction between two overlapping societal domains: a political society, which rules through coercive measures, and a civil society, which is governed through consent. Civil society, according to Gramsci, was understood not as the amalgamation of third sector organizations, but rather a sphere of “hegemonic control of the dominant class” over the institutional domains of society including education, work, religion, and the media (Fairclough, 1995:93). The mass media is a system designated for the dissemination and distribution of symbols and messages to the general population. The primary function of the media is to entertain, inform, and indoctrinate the public with value systems “that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society” (Herman, 1988:1). In a world characterized by class conflict and the unequal distribution of wealth, systematic propaganda is an impetus for domination and manufactured consent (Herman, 1998:1).

IDFs are finely “tuned to the social structures and power relations within which the media operate” (Fairclough, 1995:25). By presenting elitist discourse as common sense, the media as an institution perpetuates and legitimizes the subjugation of marginalized ethnic and cultural groups (Fairclough, 1995:63). The affiliation between the media and orders of discourse cultivates ideological effects, obscures relations of domination, and naturalizes particular discursive practices as transparent (Fairclough, 1995:25). In referring to French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, Fairclough explains that we are currently living in a “hyperreality” insofar that “the distinction between image and reality has collapsed” (Fairclough, 1995:16). As a result, a common misconception is that the media is somehow a “mirror to reality” (Fairclough, 1995:64). These misconceptions are the direct result of the “dominant ideological representations of reality” which are habitually framed as objective knowledge (Fairclough, 1995:64).

2.2 Orientalism and Construction of the ‘Other’

This section will begin by describing the theory of Orientalism as imagined by Edward Said before discussing the concept in terms of its relationship to colonial rule and notions of discourse, power- knowledge, and ideology. Section 2.2.2 will focus on the concept of the Other in relation to Orientalism and the mass media.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

2.2.1 Orientalism: A Post-colonial Culture

Orientalism refers to “the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient” (Said, 1978:3); a scientific discipline that boasts the critical understanding of Eastern cultures, societies, and customs since the early 19th century. Secondly, Orientalism is widely conceptualized as an ideological mechanism and the wellspring of stereotypical, racist, and imagined images of the ‘mystical’ East. However, Orientalist attitudes should not be understood as something unique to Westerners or Western societies; “just as there are Westerners who do not adopt the orientalist approach, there are also Easterners who adopt it” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:732).

In 1978, Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism, considered to be a revolutionary study that has made ground-breaking contributions to post-colonial theory, ventured to open a discussion into Western-based “ontological and epistemological distinctions made between the Orient and […] the Occident” (Aljubouri, 2020:8; Said, 1978:20). Through the application of Foucauldian conceptualizations of power-knowledge, the colonial West and orientalist knowledge is recognized as being in an intimate relationship that is essential to the domination, restructuring, and “authority over the Orient” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:733; Said, 1978:20). In order to comprehend the enormously complex and intricate ideological implications of Orientalist scholarship, Orientalism must be understood in terms of discourse (Said, 1978:20).

Although it was Foucault who provided Said with the theoretical framework to define the power dynamics between knowledge about the Orient and (Western) authority over it, it was Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony and hegemonic struggle which guided Said “in explaining why certain ideas about the East dominate others” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:733). Orientalist discourse is

[…] by no means in direct, corresponding relationship with political power in the raw, but rather is produced and exists in an uneven exchange with various kinds of power [emphasis added], shaped to a degree by the exchange with power political (as with a colonial or imperial establishment), power intellectual (as with reigning sciences like comparative linguistics or anatomy, or any of the modern policy sciences), power cultural (as with orthodoxies and canons of taste, texts, values), power moral (as with ideas about what "we" do and what "they" cannot do or understand as "we" do).

Figure 2: (Said, 1978:28) With the help of these concepts, Said determined that Orientalist epistemes of Eastern cultures and traditions were not objective knowledge, but rather subjective interpretations characterized by imperial and geopolitical interests in the WANA (West Asia North Africa) region. Thus, Orientalism has been referred to as “the accomplice of Western colonialism” which serves to maintain the asymmetrical

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 power relations between the colonizer and the subject race (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:733-734; Said, 1978:19)

2.2.2 Orientation Towards the Other

Various scholars including Foucault have used the Other in reference to those who challenge the status quo and whose actions are regarded as socially deviant or abnormal. However, the Other can be defined, in its simplest terms, as being “fundamentally different from us [emphasis added]” (Harle, 2000:10). Orientation towards the Other is essential to the functions of society insofar that self-identity is defined by Otherness. “One cannot experience oneself as righteous […] without an unrighteous alter ego against whom to compare oneself” (Harle, 2000:10-11). In other words, sociocultural themes are dependent on and cannot exist without an antithesis (Harle, 2000:10).

Hence, the West has established its own identity in relation to the East. Orientalism, according to Said (1978:43), is “ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, the West, us) and the strange (the Orient, the East, them)”. Orientalism can thus be defined as an ideological process that positions the West against the East by depicting the Orient as wholly anti-Western. Therefore, the West presents itself as being “modern, progressive, democratic, developmental, and individualistic” while presenting the East as “traditional, underdeveloped, authoritarian” and “communitarian” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:738).

Accordingly, media orders of discourse have played a significant role in the reproduction of demeaning and overexaggerated stereotypes of Arab and Muslim identity “that lump together Islam and terrorism, or Arabs and violence, or the Orient and tyranny” (Said, 1974:317). In films and television, Arab identity and Arab characterization is associated with “lust, materialism, terrorism, lethargy, folly, and character weakness; whereas Western identity and Western characterization is associated with “democratic, sane, reliable, virtuous, and powerful images” (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:746-747). And while the distinction between us and them is often “definitional”, the relationship between the Self and the Other has potentially violent and hostile sociocultural implications (Harle, 2000:11). One would have to look no further than the increased prejudices against Arabs and Muslims following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 (Türkoğlu, et al., 2021:738-739). A more in- depth analysis concerning the sociocultural implications of Orientalist discourse will be conducted in Chapter 4 of this study.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

2.3 Theory as an Analytical Tool

The theories discussed throughout this chapter will serve as an analytical lens whereby the phenomenon under study will be measured. Whereas the first level of Fairclough’s three-dimensional model will focus on a social semiotic description of the meaning-making material, i.e., Netflix film and television programmes, theories surrounding power-knowledge, ideology, and hegemony in relation to the mass media, and Orientalism, in synthesis with the concept of Otherization, will be operationalized in the remaining two dimensions – discursive practice and sociocultural practice. Hence, the material – which is at the same time the communicative event – will be measured based on the extent to which it sustains hegemonic, ideologically motivated forms of knowledge and to the degree in which these epistemes reproduce power asymmetries and structural inequalities. “the cultural role played by the Orient in the West connects Orientalism with ideology, politics, and the logic of power” (Said, 1978:39). Thus, Orientalism (as a discourse of power) has, within the context of material chosen, been identified as the ideological tool conducive of the construction of the stereotyped Other (Said, 1978:301).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

III. Methodology

According to Creswell (2009:3), a research design incorporates 3 elements: the worldview assumption; procedures of inquiry (strategies); and method. The study will follow Creswell’s definition of research design, seeing as how it is the most comprehensive definition found within the course literature. In terms of the philosophical world view, this study will follow the social constructivist worldview, which is described as an inductive approach that emphasizes human interpretations of the social world including the interpretations of the researcher (Creswell, 2009:8). Creswell (2009:8) explains that the social constructivist worldview asserts that “the basic generation of meaning is always social”. Similarly, Fairclough (1995:6) suggests that text, or discursive practices, “are social spaces in which two […] social processes simultaneously occur: cognition and representation of the world, and social interaction”. Considering that this study will not rely on the involvement of participants, the construction of meaning will rely on the researcher’s interpretation of the data.

Procedures or strategies of inquiry is defined as the “types of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods design… that provide specific direction for the procedures within a research design” (Creswell, 2009:11). With that being said, the procedure of inquiry that will be employed throughout this study is Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA). Fairclough’s approach to CDA is a three-dimensional framework focusing on textual analysis, analysis of discursive practice, and an analysis of wider sociocultural practices (Fairclough, 1995:2). Moreover, qualitative research methods often employ the use of a theoretical lens (Creswell, 2009:176). In conjunction with discourse theory as described by (Fairclough, 1995), the study will employ Edward Said’s theory on Orientalism in synthesis with theories surrounding the construction of the Other as an analytical and theoretical lens (Said, 1978), thereby helping to explicate the relationship between CDA theory and Western attitudes of the Orient.

Method refers to ‘the forms of data collection, analysis, and interpretation that researchers propose for their studies’ (Creswell, 2009:15). The data, which will be analysed and interpreted using Fairclough’s approach to CDA, is a set of Netflix films and TV programmes, purposively chosen on the basis of their thematic nature (films and programmes set in or relating to the Orient). Thus, the study will be based on the visual and critical analysis of media. The data will consist largely of primary data or ‘data that have been observed, experienced or recorded’ and is the ‘most immediate recording of a situation’ (Walliman, 2017:77-78). Since the focal point of CDA is the critique and immediate recording and observation of data, the material is deemed wholly primary. Foucault explains that power manifests itself in all facets of the social world and discourse is the embodiment of power

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

(Rainbow, 1984:192); hence, discourse analysis can be applied towards all forms of written or spoken text.

Before embarking on the analysis, this chapter will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen method. Thereupon, a detailed outline of Norman Fairclough’s approach to CDA from a methodological standpoint will be presented. As discussed in the Theoretical Framework, an important difference between CDA and post-structural discourse theory is that CDA conceptualizes discourse as being both constitutive and constituted. In other words, discourse is an important part of social practice which both sustains and reshapes hegemonic ideological structures, social and power relations, and social identities. “Thus, discourse is in a dialectical relationship with other social dimensions” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:65). This study has chosen to conduct a CDA based on its application of interrelated concepts including the power-knowledge paradigm, ideology, hegemony, and its relationship to media orders of discourse, which is a principal focus in regard to this study.

Secondly, while CDA was first conceptualized as a linguistically oriented method, this chapter aims at highlighting the interdisciplinary, multimodal approach to CDA “that deals with all types of discourse, including some of the semiotic resources employed in many aspects of media, advertisements, education, cinema, and the like” (Aljubouri, 2020:30).

Thirdly, section 3.3 of this chapter, will provide an opportunity to discuss the choice of material, ending with a reflection concerning the strengths and limitations of the chosen research design.

3.1 Strengths and Weaknesses

There exist several strengths when applying this method, especially in its application towards the collection of audio-visual materials, insofar that the process is nonobtrusive, allows the participants/researchers to share his/her own interpretation of reality, and ‘creative in that it captures attention visually’ (Creswell, 2009:180). And while primary data is often difficult to acquire (Walliman, 2017:78), CDA makes the possibility of obtaining data for analysis uniquely accessible. The strength of such a method is that it helps researchers understand social phenomena that are mediated by hegemonic ideologies and asymmetrical power structures, sustained by dominant orders of discourse or ‘the totality of discursive practices associated with a particular domain or institution’ (Fairclough, 1995:1-10). Another strength of qualitative research design is that it provides researchers with the opportunity to conduct an in-depth, detailed, and nuanced study into various phenomena. Lastly, a qualitative research design presents researchers with the chance to reveal the more implicit

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 meanings behind a social phenomenon or ‘what is inside the black box’ through subjective interpretation (Chambliss, 2019:337).

However, subjectivity can also serve as a hinderance to one’s study. Since the researcher is the ‘primary instrument of data collection’ and qualitative research focuses largely on subjective experience and interpretation, validity is often difficult to achieve. Therefore, researchers must ensure a clarification of their own subjective agenda, biases, and ‘how their interpretation is shaped by their background’ (Creswell, 2009:195-195). Other weaknesses to qualitative research design are that it is time consuming, meaning less cases and an inability to form generalizations, as well as an inability to test hypotheses due to a lack of control over external factors (Chambliss, 2019:357). A quantitative content analysis, in contrast, may be able to avoid such subjective interpretations since it relies heavily on the scientific method, making objectivity much more desirable (Neuendorf, 2002:10). However, unlike Fairclough’s approach to CDA, a quantitative content analysis fails to produce a link between language, ideology, and power, which will be a principle focus in this study.

3.2 Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model

The following section will give a detailed account of the three dimensions which constitute Fairclough’s critical approach to CDA: text analysis/production, discursive practice, and socio/cultural practice. “The hypothesis is that significant connections exist between features of texts, ways in which texts are put together and interpreted, and the nature of the social practice”. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model is presented in Figure 3. Figure 3: (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:68)

3.2.1 Text Analysis and Social Semiotics

Through the critical analysis of linguistically oriented texts, in combination with the employment of a particular set of tools, it becomes possible to provide insight “on how discourses are activated textually and arrive at, and provide backing for, a particular interpretation” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:83).

Visual images are often thought of as specific, concrete, imprints of reality. Hence, the epistemic modality of truth, or the analysis of visual modality is a technique used within CDA to refer to the “truth value or credibility of (linguistically realized) statements about the world” (Bell, 2001:20).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Speakers, authors, and producers depict people, places, and things with a certain degree of affinity. For instance, the claim “Hardening of the arteries attacks the arteries over almost the whole body” expresses the statement as an indisputable fact whereas “Hardening of the arteries may [emphasis added] attack the arteries over almost the whole body” presents the statement with a slight degree of uncertainty (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:83). Truth should be understood, here, as being “in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces, and which extend it. A “regime' of truth” (Fairclough, 1992:49). The mass media’s tendency to present particular interpretations of a communicative event as objective rather than subjective is an example of how truth, as a categorical modality, can be utilized to naturalize certain ideological-discursive formations. “The media’s use of categorical, objective modalities both reflects and reinforces their authority” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:84).

Another important facet to text analysis is exclusion, inclusion, and prominence. In other words, by examining texts from a representational point of view, it is possible to indicate which elements of a communicative event (actions/activities, sounds, subject positions, social relations, etc.) are excluded or given the most prominence or salience (Fairclough, 2003:97). Representation “considers meaning insofar as it tells us about the world in some way” (Iedema, 2001:191).

Although text is most often conceptualized as written language (Aljubouri, 2020:37) it is not, however, limited to linguistically specific structures; “all cultural artifacts — a picture, a building, a piece of music — can be seen as text” (Fairclough, 1995:4). As previously mentioned, this study will be analysing multimodal texts, i.e., visual imagery within Netflix film and television. Within contemporary societies, text is increasingly being regarded as multi-semiotic. This becomes most apparent in television and film, which combines visual imagery and sound (Fairclough, 1995:4). Appropriately, the research will be conducting a social semiotic analysis. This form of analysis treats the analysis of texts “as a key component of cultural analysis of the media” (Fairclough, 1995:24) and involves the examination of semiotic resources; “what can be said and done” with visual imagery (Iedema, 20021:134). Tele-filmic data is, however, “often more than just a movie, tv series, or documentary, but a political statement” (Iedema, 2001:186). The critical analysis of visual imagery and other semiotic resources deals with various modes of representation within film and television including and not limited to “the framing of pictures, camera movements (pans and zooms) and the sequencing of shots” (Fairclough, 1995:24). The implementation of a particular set of visual codes over others — including the choices made among specific camera and editing choices — conveys social meanings (Fairclough, 1995:24).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

The social semiotic analysis of text provides the researcher with the ability to analyse and identify the ways in which texts frame a particular communicative event and social relations, naturalizing hegemonic, ideological, and empirical claims as common sense and thereby contributing to the construction of knowledge and social identities (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:83).

3.2.2 Discursive Practice

The dimension of discursive practice refers to the production, distribution, and consumption of particular texts (Fairclough, 1992:78). This level of analysis is used to investigate how architects of discourse draw upon and incorporate pre-existing texts into new and emerging discourses. While sociocultural practices function to shape texts, the link between the two dimensions (sociocultural practice and text analysis) is an indirect one and is mediated by the dimension of discursive practice (Fairclough, 1995:60). A dichotomy exists within the dimension of discursive practice “involving either a normative use of discourse types (genres and discourses) or a creative mixture of them” (Fairclough, 1995:60). This is where the orders of discourse, i.e., the totality of discursive practices, and the communicative event intersect. Thus, the discursive practice dimension is interested in how communicative events reproduce oppressive power structures by drawing on existing orders of discourse (Fairclough, 1995:60).

This process is implemented using one or both of the following concepts – interdiscursivity and intertextuality (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:73). While interdiscursivity refers to the process which “occurs when different discourses and genres are articulated together in a communicative event” and are therefore susceptible to change (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:73), intertextuality aims to explore the nature of texts from the perspective of discursive practice, i.e., “what genres and discourses were drawn upon in producing the text” (Fairclough, 1995:61). Whereas linguistic analysis functions descriptively, intertextuality is more interpretive in nature. The descriptive elements of a text can be used as evidence for intertextual analysis, “and intertextual analysis is a particular sort of interpretation of that evidence” (Fairclough, 1995:61); interpretations which identify features of a text in relation to orders of discourse (ibid).

3.2.3 Sociocultural Practice

The sociocultural dimension of Fairclough’s model endeavours to explore the social matrix of discourse, i.e., “the social and cultural relations and structures that constitute the wider context of discursive practice” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86). For example, what socioeconomic and institutional conditions is the discourse contingent on (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86)? There exists, however, various

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 levels of abstraction from the particular communicative event: this may involve an analysis of the direct situational context, an analysis of the wider institutional and structural elements that constitute the communicative event, or an even more comprehensive analysis of the society and culture in which the event is embedded (Fairclough, 1995:62). Sociocultural practice is composed of three primary aspects: “economic, political (concerned with issues of power and ideology), and cultural (concerned with questions of value and identity)” (Fairclough, 1995:62). However, to better explore the sociocultural conditions which facilitate a particular discourse practice, it is necessary to make use of other theories in order to provide insight on the communicative event in question (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86). “Doing critical discourse analysis will, then, always involve the transdisciplinary integration of different theories” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86). Therefore, in addition to the theories provided by Fairclough, this study will draw upon Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism

Thus, it is through the analysis of the relationship between discursive practice and the wider sociocultural practice that CDA arrives at its final conclusions (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86). Only here do questions surrounding relations of power, ideology, hegemony, and the possibilities for change unravel (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86-87).

3.3 Choice of Material

The primary data was selected using a purposive sampling method. Purposive sampling is a form of nonprobability sampling used most often in qualitative research “in which elements are selected for a purpose, usually because of their unique position” (Chambliss, 2019:131-134). While purposive sampling does not produce a sample representative of an entire population – the entirety of Netflix film and TV programmes in this case – this method of sampling “can be exactly what is needed in a case study of an organization, community, or some other clearly defined and relatively limited” subset (Chambliss, 2019:134). The subset, here, will refer to Netflix films and TV programmes set in or relating to the Orient. The material was also selected according to what is known as completeness, or the extent to which the data “provides an overall sense of the meaning of a concept, theme or process” (Chambliss, 2019:134), in this case, Orientalism/Orientalist discourse. In order to keep contemporarily relevant, the study has selected material that has been produced between 2015 – 2020:

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Television Series Film Fauda (2015 – Present) Gods of Egypt (2016) Al Hayba (2017) Sand Castle (2017) Messiah (2020 – 2020) Stateless (2020 – 2020)

The selected material is a combination of both television programmes and film. And while Sand Castle, Messiah, and Stateless are Netflix Originals, i.e., Netflix exclusive programming, Fauda, Gods of Egypt, and Al Hayba are Netflix licensed, i.e., content which Netflix has acquired the rights to. This study has chosen to analyse a heterogenous mix of both promotional elements and frames. For instance, while the analysis of Messiah will be limited to the promotional poster and trailer, the remaining material will be limited to the analysis of particular frames/scenes.

Rather than applying the theoretical framework in its entirety to each of the selected films/television programmes, section 4.1 will analyse Stateless, Gods of Egypt, and Messiah through the lens of visual semiotics including elements such as exclusion, inclusion, and prominence; and point of view, i.e., the use of camera and editing choices. Al Hayba and Sand Castle will be analysed using theories related to Orientalism and the construction of the stereotyped Other. Fauda, on the other hand, will be examined through the lens of modality, i.e., a speaker or producer’s degree of affinity in relation to a particular communicative event. And while section 4.2 will focus on identifying the intertextual chains present within the selected material, section 4.3 will discuss the findings in relation to theories surrounding ideology, hegemony, and the media. In order to demonstrate the pattern of Orientalist representations of Arab Identity in Netflix, the study has chosen to analyse 6 films/television programmes rather than one film/television programme in its entirety. In order to avoid sacrificing analytical comprehensiveness, no more than 6 were analysed. This issue is discussed further in the concluding chapter.

Moreover, due to the time constraints under which this study will be conducted, a collection of secondary data will be used complementary to the above-mentioned material in order to verify the results and protect against subjective biases. The secondary data, combined with my knowledge as a critical researcher, will provide further insight on the selected material, including what pre-existing texts and discourses were drawn upon in the production of the data i.e., intertextuality, as well as a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between Orientalist discourse and its sociocultural implications.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

IV. Analysis

4.1 Text Analysis

This section will conduct a social semiotic analysis of the following material: Stateless, Gods of Egypt, Messiah, Al Hayba, Sand Castle, and Fauda. Section 4.1.1 focuses on the significance of what is excluded, included, and made most prominent or salient within in particular text, whereas section 4.1.2, Point of View, discusses the significance of camera angles and editing choices towards the creation of meaning potentials, i.e., the symbolic relations generated between the person, place, or object being portrayed and the viewer/audience. Next, section 4.1.3, emphasizes the role of Orientalist discourse in the construction of stereotyped Otherness. Finally, section 4.1.4 discussed the significance of truth as a categorical modality.

4.1.1 Exclusion, Inclusion, and Prominence

An important aspect of textual analysis includes “an account of what choices are made – what is included and excluded, what is made explicit or left implicit” (Fairclough, 1995:104). While social semiotic research involves the examination of how meaning is created through the analysis of semiotic resources, it also functions to “show what was left out and thus constructed as unimportant or as natural and taken-for-granted” (Iedema, 2001:188). Thus, before conducting an analysis of the most salient features of a text, one must examine and be sensitive to what elements are absent, excluded, or recontextualized (Fairclough, 1995:104).

Netflix’s Stateless is a six-part limited series focusing on four strangers whose lives intersect at an Australian immigration detention centre in the middle of the desert. They are Sofie Werner, a German flight attendant escaping a cult-like organization played by Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski; Cam Sandford, a father and a husband struggling to make ends meet played by Australian actor Jai Courtney; Claire Kowitz, an Australian bureaucrat emersed in a national scandal portrayed by actress Asher Keddie; and Ameer, an Afghan refugee seeking asylum with his family depicted by Lebanese-Australian actor Fayssal Bazzi (Griffiths, 2020).

Along with rampant ethnic discrimination, racism, and intolerance, immigrants in Australia are faced with many settlement problems including issues with employment, poor or limited access to health care, difficulty learning/speaking the language, general orientation, and other personal issues outside of or related to integration (Burnett, 1998:56). Refugees, on the other hand, face a particularly unique and daunting experience in that they “have little, if any, choice in their country of settlement

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 and they often arrive after a period of suffering and trauma in their country of origin” (Burnett, 1998:25-26). And while Stateless acknowledges the politically motivated nature of racial prejudices towards migrants, the series presents the issue of immigration and settlement as a wholly white narrative (Foreman. 2020). The story of Ameer is the only narrative in the series centred around the plight of a non-white refugee. And while his story is emotionally gripping, the majority of screen time is dedicated to Sofie, Cam, and Claire. Sofie’s character is the most comprehensive and elaborate of them all and receives “disproportionate emphasis compared to other issues present in the series, namely those of Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, and genocide” (Foreman, 2020). Figure 4 depicts Sofie Werner after being mistakenly detained at the Barton Immigration Detention Centre under the Australian Government’s mandatory detention program.

Figure 4: (Incognita, 0:03:11)

Similarly, Gods of Egypt is another tone-deaf attempt at cinematic storytelling which, at the time of this study, could be found within Netflix’s compendium of Orientalist blockbusters. The film has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ people of colour due to its inherently Western interpretation of Egyptian mythology. One whose leading cast members are white. People of colour who are present in the film are, like Stateless, relegated to insignificant and minor roles and whose characters are the least developed. In fact, not one leading cast member is of ‘Middle’ Eastern background or of Egyptian descent, for that matter (Silver, 2018). Netflix describes the plot of Gods of Egypt as follows:

After losing control of Egypt to dark god Set, who brings Chaos to the land, god Horus teams up with a mortal thief to save humankind.

Figure 5: Netflix plot description for Alex Proyas' (2016) Gods of Egypt

Horus, portrayed by blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, best known for his role as knight Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones, is depicted as the ultimate saviour whose unique powers make him the only one capable of withstanding the tyrannical Set, played by Gerard Butler (Silver, 2018).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Figure 6: (Proyas, 2016, 0:44:03)

Figure 7: (Proyas, 2016, 0:44:04) Figure 6 and Figure 7 above, depicts Horus (left) attempting to seek the wisdom of his grandfather Ra, god of the sun (right), who may hold the key to defeating Set. Ra, portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, explains that in order to defeat Set, Horus must overcome his own insecurities and precariousness.

4.1.2 Point of View

Point of view is another social semiotic resource capable of creating meaning potential. It refers to how people, places, or objects are depicted, i.e., from above, below, or eye-level, from the front, side, or back. While one cannot be certain what different points of view will mean exactly, it becomes possible, however, to “describe the kinds of meaning they will allow image producers and viewers to create, in this case, the kinds of symbolic relations between image producers/viewers and the people, places or things in images” (Jewitt, et al., 2001:135). The vertical angle, for example, conveys a relationship of symbolic power. Looking down at something provides the viewer with a sense of superiority while looking up towards something creates the opposite effect, one of inferiority. If a producer wants to convey a person, place, or thing as magnificent or in a position of power, they are unlikely to choose a high angle, and if a high angle is used, the viewer is less likely to perceive the subject matter as powerful. The eye-level point of view, on the other hand, conveys a relationship of symbolic equality. In the case of horizontal angles, frontality creates a feeling of high engagement, maximum involvement, and a sense of familiarity between the viewer and the person or object being

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 presented. If something is depicted from the side or from the back, it is being presented as foreign or unfamiliar which conveys a sense of distrust and detached engagement (Jewitt, et al., 2001:135). One must always keep in mind that “symbolic relations are not real relations, and it is precisely this which makes point of view a semiotic resource” (Jewitt, et al., 2001:135). It deceives. Points of view can enable, within us, a sense of affinity towards someone who we have never met, a sense of equality towards people with a considerable amount of power over us, or a sense of detachment towards individuals who have a significant impact, control, and authority in and over our lives (Jewitt, et al., 2001:135). Figure 8 presents the movie poster for the Netflix Original Series Messiah.

Figure 8: Messiah promotional poster (McTeigue, et al., 2020) The series centres around CIA agent Eva Geller, portrayed by American actress Michelle Monaghan, who is bent on exposing the truth about a mysterious, profit-like entity hailing from the Syrian desert, claiming to be a messenger from God, known only as Al-Masih (the Messiah). Working closely with Aviram Dahan, a Shin Bet agent with a dark past, Eva Geller attempts to reveal the origins of this ominous figure who procured a large following amongst people who believe him to be “Isa”, or Jesus, in Arabic.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Figure 8 demonstrates the meaning-making potential of points of view and how “images create particular relations between viewers and the world inside the picture frame” (Jewitt, 2001:145). Al- Masih, the unusual and self-proclaimed messianic figure, is depicted from the back, conveying a high degree of detachment and unfamiliarity between the viewer and the potentially dangerous Other. Contrastingly, the movie poster also depicts Eva Geller, the virtuous and principled CIA agent desperate for closure, at eye-level, instilling feelings of attachment and familiarity. Frontality is also used, generating a high degree of engagement between the character and viewers. Demand pictures, on the other hand, refers to images that “symbolically demand something from the viewer” (Jewitt, 2001:145). The examination of facial expressions and gestures can then reveal what exactly is being ‘demanded’. They can demand submissiveness, by grimacing downwards onto the viewer, “or pity, by pleadingly looking up at them” (Jewitt, 2001:145). In regard to Figure 8, Eva Geller’s eyes are locked on Al-Masih, drawing the viewers’ attention to the mystical figure at the forefront of the image. Her facial expression can be described as disturbed, discomposed, anxious, and shaken; one which demands from the audience a sense of uncertainty and doubt towards the unknown; the different; the untold. The frame below, which was taken from the trailer, is another example of how particular discursive practices, i.e., camera and editing choices, are used to portray Al-Masih (the Other, them, the Orient) as menacing and enigmatic while at the same positioning the viewer (us) in relation to the character (Iedema, 2001:192).

Figure 9: Netflix trailer for Messiah (McTeigue, 2020, 0:00:05) 4.1.3 Construction of the Stereotyped Other

The mysterious desert wanderer is not the only way in which Arab identity has been misrepresented within Netflix film and TV. While the previous two sections focused on the more implicit and subtle ways in which meaning potentials are created, i.e., what architects of discourse choose to exclude/include and camera and editing choices, the following section will focus on more explicit and salient forms of Otherization, i.e., discourse practices that facilitate the construction of negative and

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 harmful Orientalist stereotypes. Typification, a guiding principle that relies on social schemata rather than unique individual attributes, occurs through the use of visual stereotypes “which may either be cultural attributes (objects, dress, hairstyle, etc.) or physiognomic attributes” (van Leeuwen, 2001:95).

Al Hayba is another series picked up by the media conglomerate in 2018. This ‘Middle’ Eastern series, which has been particularly popular among recent musalsalat Ramadan (TV dramas released during the month of Ramadan), revolves around the machinations of a family clan known as Sheikh El Jabal, who oversees arms trading in the Lebanese Syrian border town of Al Hayba. Netflix describes the show as follows:

In a village by the Lebanon-Syria border, the head of an arms-smuggling clan contends with family conflicts, power struggles and complicated love.

Figure 10: Netflix plot description for Samer Barqawi's (2017) Al Hayba The description says it all: weapons, clan conflict, interfamily strife, and lust. What more can a Netflix enthusiast ask for? The stereotypical cultural attributes, which come in the form of demeaning cliches and dehumanizing overgeneralizations overshadows a person, place, or object’s unique features, representing the Other as a mere ‘social type’, rather than a specific individual (van Leeuwen, 2001:95). Figure 11 demonstrates some of the cultural stereotypes used throughout Al Hayba “whose job seems to be to alert Western consumers to the threat of an enraged, congenitally undemocratic and violent” Arab world (Said, 1978:313).

Figure 11: (Episode 1, 2017, 0:37:15) The frame above depicts a confrontation between Jabal (portrayed by Syrian actor Taim Hasan), his clan, Sheikh El Jabal (standing behind him, fiercely brandishing their weapons), and the Lebanese authorities. Jabal attempts to defuse the situation and warns the authorities that “No one wishes to gamble with his own blood” – promoting the idea that blood feuds, Arab tribalism, and coercive tactics are somehow customary in the region.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Joining the list of Netflix films culpable of overtly Orientalist depictions of the Other is Sand Castle. This Netflix original is set at the dawn of the 2003 Iraq invasion and follows a group of young U.S. soldiers tasked with providing water to an Iraqi village whose infrastructure was destroyed during a U.S. airstrike on a group of suspected ‘terrorists’. The film does not stray far from the archetypal testosterone-fuelled, stout-hearted, Rambo-esque representations of the U.S. infantry soldier. Figure 12 and Figure 13 illustrates these overtly aggressive, sexually charged, and exaggerated ‘masculine’ traits present throughout the film.

Figure 12: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:04:13)

Figure 13: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:04:15) Iraqis, on the other hand, are depicted as either terrorist (those opposed to Western democratic values) which, like a cancerous lump, need be eradicated; as passive/vulnerable (those pleading to the Americans for access to water); or as the ‘positive Other’ (those working side-by-side with the U.S. military). The positive Other, explains Harle (2000:11), refers to out-group members who are accepted by us (in-group, the West, the Occident). In-group members will often self-identify with the positive Other insofar that “[…] the Other is spoken of in neutral terms, as being human beings with a right to their own identities and existence” (Harle, 2000:11). Figure 14 demonstrates how the positive Other, i.e., Arabs who do not cover their faces, who are in service of the U.S. military, and who speak English, are regarded as the positive Other, worthy of embrace and humane treatment; whereas Figure 15, refers to those whose values diverge from their Western counterparts, are faceless and regarded as subhuman, or the evil Other (Harle, 2000:11).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Figure 14: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:30:18)

Figure 15: (Coimbra, 2017, 0:20:32) 4.1.4 A ‘Regime’ of Truth

It is worth repeating that the aim of this study is not to discover the falsities within nor refute epistemic claims to knowledge, rather, it is to examine the social functions truth plays in the context of a particular communicative event (Rainbow, 1984:4-12). Given the current political climate in the Near East, referring specifically to Israel’s relentless bombing campaign on Gaza in which, at the time of writing, 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, have been killed (Pietromarchi, et al., 2021), the study finds appropriate to end this chapter with an analysis of the television drama/action series Fauda; one which transforms the asymmetrical power dynamic into TV entertainment. The media, explains Fairclough (1995:2), possesses the power “to shape governments and parties, to transform the suffering of the South (rooted in exploitation by the North) into the entertainment of the North.” Fauda, meaning ‘chaos’ in Arabic, is an Israeli political thriller following a group of men belonging to a glorified hit- squad who impersonate Palestinians in order to track, capture, kidnap, or carry out the extra-judicial killings of suspected ‘terrorists.’ The thriller, however, does not shy away from acknowledging the loss, carnage, and gut-wrenching brutality in which the Mistaravim – a Hebrew word meaning “Jews who become Arabs”, leave behind them. In fact, the series seizes every opportunity to make its message clear: “Israelis have been killed, and their deaths cannot go unpunished. Palestinian fatalities are the regrettable, but necessary” (Hodgkins, 2018:1). Although Fauda makes no effort in concealing

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 the socially deviant and morally contentious choices made by the Mistaravim, the lines between the tragic hero, whose aberrations should be pardoned, “and the terrorists - whose inchoate humanity is tainted by fanaticism” are blurred (Hodgkins, 2018:2). Figure 16 and Figure 17 depict the commander of the Mistaravim, Doron Kabillio, portrayed by Lior Raz, Israeli actor, and producer of Fauda, during his first appearance in the series. The frame shows Doron cheerfully playing with his children as the warm Levantine sun kisses his face.

Figure 16: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:04:55)

Figure 17: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:05:01) His Palestinian counterpart, on the other hand, known only as “the Panther”, first appears as a shadowy figure emerging from the blackness, unravelling a kaffiyeh (a traditional Palestinian headdress) from his visage. Figure 18 and Figure 19 demonstrates this.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Figure 18: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:08:38)

Figure 19: (Episode 1, 2015, 0:08:47) Matters of modality, as previously mentioned, refers to “the extent to which producers commit themselves to, or conversely distance themselves from” particular propositions or representations of the world, i.e., “their degree of ‘affinity’ with the proposition” (Fairclough, 1992:142). Fauda is a form of colonial storytelling which frames the Mistaravim as victims of unremitting Palestinian aggression, forever being pursued by Islamist head-hunters (Lockard,2018:2). Therefore, the incessant images of the racialized Other present within the Netflix thriller and the lack of divergence from this narrative suggests a high degree of affinity between the producer(s) and the communicative event.

4.2 Discursive Practice

The objective, here, is to identify the “intertextual chains” present within a particular discourse sample, i.e., how a text builds off of prior texts to generate new and emerging discourses (Fairclough, 1992:107). Considering that this study has moved beyond the analysis of linguistic structures towards a multimodal conception of discourse, the intertextual chain will be established on the basis of visual intertextuality – “the appropriation of images from other sources” (Ivanič, 2015:49). In contrast to linguistically oriented methods of intertextual analysis, visual intertextuality is conducted through the

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 recognition of ‘types.’ Types can be understood as all forms of social semiotic representation (visual, verbal, written, gestural, musical, et cetera), e.g., representations of the stereotyped Other (van Leeuwen, 2001:106). “Fauda has been heavily criticized for dehumanising Palestinians and completely erasing the military occupation by failing to show any of the […] infrastructure built across the West Bank and Gaza” (Hawari, 2020). Therefore, the following section will highlight the ways in which producers of the selected material draw upon, both explicitly and implicitly, various semiotic resources so as to convey a specific message to a given audience.

4.2.1 Intertextuality

Section 4.1.1 of the analysis focused on exclusion, inclusion, and prominence. While the analysis of representation entails the analysis of what is present in a particular communicative event, “it is also important to be sensitive to absences from the text, to things which might have been 'there', but aren't” (Fairclough, 1995:106).

Both Stateless and Gods of Egypt, as the analysis has shown, engage in the practice of what is known as whitewashing, i.e., “whitening or altering an historical or fictional character of colour with the casting of white actors” (Mohamed, 2017:2). Whitewashing in film, however, is by no means a new phenomenon. Race and its relationship to cinema can be traced back to the epoch of the silent film industry. Institutional policies and practices have, since the genesis of film production, “normalized whiteness on the big screen” (Mohamed, 2017:5-6). Films, throughout the Classic Hollywood period and into the contemporary era, have hierarchically fashioned whiteness as the standard by which a plethora of producers have so eagerly adopted as the analysis of Stateless and Gods of Egypt have demonstrated. Although actors of colour are not entirely excluded from filmdom per se, their characters are underdeveloped, restricted, narrow, and are most often portrayed with negative cultural and racial stereotypes (Mohamed, 2017:6). Moreover, “producers argue that they would have difficulties funding their projects without casting white actors” (Mohamed, 2017:7). Consider the following quote from Elise McCredie, producer of Netflix’s Stateless, explaining why she chose to cast predominantly white actors in a television series centred around Australia’s immigration system: “And honestly, in terms of financing it, we had to make a decision early: do we make a show or not make a show?” (ABC, 2020).

Section 4.1.2, Point of View, explored the significance of camera and editing choices in generating meaning potentials, using Netflix’s Messiah as an example. There has been, hitherto, limited research conducted surrounding the origins and subsequent development of camera movement and editing choices in film production. However, there does exist, to some extent, a compendium of

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 literature privileging the more theoretically oriented accounts of camera and editing techniques (Nielsen, 2007:7). Camera movements, like whitewashing, saw its advent within the silent film industry. In the early 20th century, organizations including The Society for Motion Picture Engineers and The American Society of Cinematographers, began publishing journals regarding camera movement as a craft (Nielsen, 2007:8). Additionally, journals relating to cinematography and camera movements have also been issued in other countries including “Le Technicien du Film and La Technique du Cinématographique in France, Zerb in Britain, and Film & TV Kameramann in Germany” (Nielsen, 2007:9). These texts focus largely on the notion of narrative motivation which posits that particular camera and editing choices “must be motivated on a count of its contribution to the telling of the story” (Nielsen, 2007:11). Approaches to camera movements can be employed with such consummate elegance that particular techniques are “virtually imperceptible to the audience – natural, inevitable, and wholly subservient to the story-action” (Nielsen, 2007:11). Thus, frames which depict Al-Masih as an ominous, enigmatic figure, i.e., from the back, and Eva Geller with a high degree of attachment and familiarity, i.e., frontality, contribute to the telling of a story. A story that draws upon Orientalist orders of discourse that function to perpetuate dehumanizing and negative images of stereotyped Otherness. “The camera is the ‘eye’ of the audience, and the spectator sees only as much of the action as the camera sees” (Nielsen, 2007:13).

Section 4.1.3 dedicated itself to the more explicit and salient forms of Otherization, i.e., discourse practices that facilitate the construction of negative and harmful Orientalist stereotypes. Al Hayba “is overtly modeled on the American Netflix series Narcos”, which follows notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and his subsequent downfall by the hands of the CIA (Booker, et al., 2019:139). Accordingly, Jabal, leader of the family clan Sheikh El Jabal, idolizes Escobar and keeps, amongst a collection of family photos, a portrait of the Columbian drug lord as his centrepiece. Al Hayba demonstrates the shift contemporary Arab television is making towards a transnational global market. American television shows, like Narcos, are “identified by Middle Eastern television executives as the kind of series that Arab television producers should be seeking to emulate […] as they themselves try to enter the global television market” (Booker, et al., 2019:139). What makes Al Hayba particularly unique is that it is the only Arab-produced series analysed in this study. The international success and proliferation of digital media platforms such as Netflix – which has recently brought its streaming service to more than 130 new countries globally – has given rise to the expansion of non-Western produced ‘pan-Arab’ dramas like Al Hayba (Booker, et al., 2019:140). Al Hayba is a stark example of what is known as auto-orientalism in which non-Western architects of discourse, either consciously or unconsciously, internalize their own oppression the adoption of Orientalist portrayals, i.e., tribal,

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 patriarchal, bloodthirsty, and congenitally violent, of their own societies (Mulder, 2016:16). “The West’s view of the ‘Orient’ […] has been internalized to such an extent that this is how people come to see themselves” (Mulder, 2016:16).

Sand Castle, on the other hand, joins a long list of Hollywood/Netflix-produced films inspired by the era of Iraq Wars of 1991 and 2003. Between 1999 and 2003 alone, a total of 15 Hollywood- produced films have been released which glorify the US military’s role in the conflict while, at the same time, contributing “to the misrepresentation of their opponents” (Aljubouri, 2020:23). Since the early 20th century, films like The Sheik (1921), The Thief of Baghdad (1924), Beau Geste (1926), Three Kings (1999), The Hurt locker (2008), and American Sniper (2014) have, either directly or indirectly, portrayed Arabs and Muslims – Iraqis in particular – as inferior, dogmatic, sexually depraved, cunning, and backward (Aljubouri, 2020). The United States’ involvement in the region has generated a “plethora of war narratives that places the East as a site of danger, a danger to the United States, the West at large, and perhaps, even itself” (Al-Nima, 2018:28-29).

Finally, section 4.1.4, A ‘Regime’ of Truth, homed in on the notion of truth as a categorical modality, applying the concept to Netflix’s Fauda. The pro-Israeli political thriller is one of many productions supporting the nation in its propaganda war against Palestine and the occupied territories; and “while racist depictions of Arabs and the glorification of Israel is not new in film […], there has recently been a surge in programmes venerating the Israeli secret services while demonizing Palestinians as a threat to global security” (Hawari, 2020). Joining Fauda on Netflix are several other pro-Israeli productions including: When Heroes Fly (2018), which follows four traumatized Israeli veterans who fought in the 2006 Lebanon war; The Angel (2018) and The Spy Who Fell to Earth (2019), both films telling the story of Ashraf Marwan, son-in-law of former President Gamal Abdel Nasar and “paid agent for the Mossad”; The Spy (2019), celebrating the life of Eli Cohen, former Mossad agent best known for his activities in Syria between 1961-65; and The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019), a fictional story “about the Mossad’s white-saviour efforts in the 1980s to evacuate Ethiopian Jews via Sudan to the Promised Land” (Fernandez, 2019).

4.3 Sociocultural Practice

This section will focus on outlining the more general ramifications of discourses practices that seek to sustain and reproduce, hegemonic, and ideologically motivated discourses of power, i.e., Orientalist representations of stereotyped Otherness, and explore “the partly non-discursive, social and cultural relations and structures that constitute the wider context of the discursive practice” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:86).

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

4.3.1 Order of Discourse

Through the social semiotic analysis of the selected material, the discursive practice(s) and its relationship to the order of discourse are revealed, i.e., the extent to which the communicative events reproduce or challenge the order of discourse to which it belongs (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:87).

In his study concerning the ways in which Europe constructed stereotypical images of the Orient, Edward Said (1978:20) argued that in lieu of empirically sound reflections of the Near East, Orientalism was the discourse “by which European culture was able to manage—and even produce— the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period”. This “system of ideological fictions”, i.e., the Orientalist discourse identified within the selected material, has serious and significant sociocultural implications, especially when they become naturalized, or presented as “non-ideological common sense”, making any form of social change a daunting task (Said, 1978:294; Fairclough, 1995:27). These epistemological claims, which have been achieved through practices of representation, i.e., within literature, art, media, et cetera, are characterized by western hegemony over the Orient and construct, sustain, and reproduce racialized knowledges of the Other “deeply implicated in the operations of power” (Hall, 1997:261).

Thus, the selected material follows a long line of conventional discourse practices characterized by a low degree of interdiscursivity insofar that the communicative events work “towards, the stability of the dominant order of discourse and thereby the dominant social order” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:73), i.e., Western imperial and cultural hegemony over the East. Through the use of various semiotic resources such as exclusion, inclusion, and prominence, i.e., whitewashing of historical and fictional characters of colour; the exploitation of camera movements and editing choices; typification, i.e., the use of cultural and physiognomic stereotypes towards the production of meaning; and through the employment of truth as a categorical modality, the selected material is, then, culpable in the construction of Orientalist knowledge and social identities; and the strengthening of unequal power relations and systems of domination.

The whitewashing practices of films like Stateless and Gods of Egypt, for example, should not be reduced to the simple act of the erasure of non-white identities but should instead be conceptualized as an intrinsic facet of ideological white superiority. White supremacy argues Andrea Smith (2020:67), “is constituted by separate and distinct, but still interrelated, logics. Envision three pillars, one labeled Slavery/Capitalism, another labeled Genocide/Capitalism, and the last one labeled Orientalism/War.” Orientalist discourse is constitutive insofar as particular peoples and nations are regarded as inferior in relation to the West and as a threat to ‘Western’ civilization, norms, and values. As wholly

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313 incompatible. This becomes most apparent in the anti-immigration movements of countries like the United States and Britain and the resurgence of right-wing populism in Europe. These negative sentiments towards the Other become increasingly salient during times of war (Smith, 2020:68). Orientalist discourse “serves as the anchor for war” insofar that it functions to legitimize the US war on terror and justify continued aggression towards its perceived adversaries (Smith, 2020:68). “the United States is not at war; the United States is war. For the system of white supremacy to stay in place, the United States must always be at war” (Smith, 2020:69).

Similarly, pro-Israeli productions such as Fauda, tell the story of the world’s longest-standing military occupation from an Israeli perspective. Through the glorification of Israeli espionage and the glossing over of the apartheid state’s settler-colonial projects, the illegal occupation and subsequent annexation of Palestinian land and property are legitimized, “becoming part of hegemonic norms or facts” (Khalidi, 2020; Hawari, 20202). Netflix’s one-sided narrative enables the reproduction of neoliberal colonial and imperialist discourse while, at the same time, romanticizing the most abhorrent aspects of Israel’s apartheid-esque occupation of Palestinian territory (Abusalama, 2020).

What is even more telling is that these hegemonic and ideological discourses, i.e., Orientalist discourses of power, become naturalized and achieves their domination through “consent rather than coercion” of subordinate classes and social groups, i.e., the stereotyped Other (Fairclough, 1995:66). Thus, Netflix can be understood as an institution that helps facilitate, through the dissemination and distribution of symbols and messages to the general population, the domination and authority over society and its political, economic, cultural, and ideological domains.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

V. Conclusion

This chapter will begin with a dialogue into the results of the study by addressing the findings related to the secondary research questions presented in the introduction chapter. The secondary research questions underlie the overarching primary question. Thus, the chapter will continue with a brief discussion into the extent to which the multimodal critical discourse analysis of tele-filmic data can help challenge existing hegemonies, promote agency, and facilitate the subsequent de-Westernization and decolonisation of the media. The chapter will conclude with a short statement regarding recommendations for future research.

5.1 Research Questions Revisited

During the selected films and TV programmes, various social semiotic modes of representation (or lack of) have been used by producers in order to maintain certain Orientalist tropes of Arab and Muslim identity, while positioning the audience in relation to the characters. By portraying the racialized Other as mysterious and enigmatic, as in the case of Al Masih and the Panther, Messiah and Fauda evoke feelings of distrust, fear, and ambiguity within their audience. Similarly, Sand Castle does little to diverge from the narrative by depicting Iraqi fighters as the faceless, barbaric, evil Other who, like a festering wound, need be eradicated. When Arabs are not being depicted as wholly evil or different, they are portrayed as the positive Other, i.e., ethnic Arabs who share the same military fatigues, speak the same language, and are pursuant of a similar agenda. The neutral Other, on the other hand, are those in need of a white saviour, i.e., the US military. Gods of Egypt is another film that brandishes, through the casting a predominately white actors, the white saviour agenda. Egypt, a country under the rule of a tyrannical despot, can only be liberated by white, blond-haired, blue-eyed gods; a narrative that echoes US foreign policy in the region. Lastly, Al Hayba is a prime example of what has been referred to as “auto-orientalism”. The producers of the series, like many others, have adopted and strategically employed the same Orientalist imagery, i.e., blood-thirsty, congenially violent, and tribal, as representational practice, internalizing their own oppression.

Westerners, on the other hand, are cast in an entirely different light; one which evokes, in their audience, feelings of empathy, familiarity, trust, camaraderie, and heroism. While Stateless’s central message is that refugees should be approached with compassion and empathy, “one can’t help but notice the troublingly white packing this narrative comes in” (Foreman, 2020). By dedicating a substantial and disproportionate amount of screen time to predominantly white protagonists, the series expounds a familiar narrative – “that white people will always be the first given attention in a crisis”

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

(Foreman, 2020). Similarly, Sand Castle, is another Iraqi War movie that tells the story from the point of view of a die-hard, purposeful, morally superior, and patriotic US infantry soldier, Matt Ocre; a heroine who exhibits compassion for a “society of which he is not really part” (Davie, 2011:9). The film does not fall short of a typical Orientalist trope – “that Arabs can function only in conflict” and their lust for revenge is overriding (Said, 1978:59). There to illuminate the road to a free, democratic, liberal, and civilized society is, of course, the US armed forces. The embodiment of everything the Orient is not or should be. By portraying Arab characters as terroristic, untrustworthy, and menacing, the images evoke, within its audience, a high degree of detachment and unfamiliarity. In contrast, schematic compositions of the front view, i.e., frontality, are used to evoke a high degree of attachment, familiarity, and empathy between Western protagonists and the audience.

Thus, it can be said that the discursive practices featured within the selected material impose “certain rules and conditions for knowledge on the Orient to be accepted as true and meaningful” (El Aidi, et al., 2017:1067) thereby contributing to the maintenance of the status quo. These relatively stabilized configurations of discursive practices, or the order of discourse, strengthen social inequalities, i.e., racist, xenophobic, and discriminatory tendencies, while, the same time, promoting the advancement of particular geopolitical agendas – such as in the case of US foreign intervention and Israeli settler-colonial efforts in occupied Palestine – and ideological apparatus, i.e., Orientalism (as a system of thought dominating Western perceptions of the Orient), and white superiority.

5.2 Discussion and Potential for Future Research

The results have shown that the multimodal critical discourse analysis of tele-film has proven sufficient in highlighting the taken-for-granted, naturalised knowledge featured within media texts, i.e., Netflix film and television. The aim of CDA is exceedingly moralistic because it endeavours “to criticise unjust social conditions and contribute to the improvement of those conditions” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:179). The method is also critical insofar as it provides the researcher with the theoretical tools to critique, and subsequently undermine particular power dynamics within society by exposing the dominant ideological world-view distortions which reinforce oppressive structures and institutional practices (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:179). CDA can, then, enable the renegotiation of meaning, i.e., the “denaturalization of the taken-for-granted understandings of reality” (Jørgensen, et al., 2002:185); or in the case of this particular study, the de-Westernization and decolonisation of Oriental discourses of power. Hence, CDA can, through the renegotiation of meaning, ascribe a degree of agency to all social subjects and provide individuals with the capacity to resist ideological dimensions of power, thereby facilitating social change, or the deconstruction of Orientalist representations of the stereotyped Other.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

The potential for future research is, thus, interminable. The methodological and theoretical framework which this study has provided can be applied to various types of media, such as news media, TV reports, adverts, documentary television/film, et cetera. The social semiotic perspective, however, provides the researcher with the ability to transcend beyond linguistically oriented media texts to all forms of semiotic modes of communication. In other words, the multimodal critical discourse analysis of texts “might be useful in analysing more complex and obscure types of racial representation” (Aljubouri, 2020:275). Considering the time constraints in which this study was under, a comprehensive analysis of all Netflix films and television programmes set in or relating to the Orient was unfeasible. With that being said, this study can, alternatively, be extended to analyse a wider range of Netflix produced or distributed films and television programmes.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Barqawi, S. (2017-). Al Hayba. Sabbah Brothers. Bernstein, A. (2015-). Fauda. Yes – Satellite Television. Coimbra, F. (2017). Sand Castle. Treehouse Pictures. Freeman, M., Moorhouse, J. (2020-2020). Stateless. Matchbox Pictures; Dirty Films. McTeigue, J., Woods, K. (2020-2020). Messiah. Think Pictures Inc.; Industry Entertainment Partners; MGM Television. Proyas, A. (2016). Gods of Egypt. Thunder Road Productions; Mystery Clock Cinema. Secondary Sources

Abusalama, M. (2020). ‘From Fauda to the Messiah: The “Us-Them" Narrative – A Netflix Disorder’. Jadaliyya. 2 April. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40898. [Accessed: 23 May 2021]. Aljubouri, A. (2020). Representation of Iraqis in Hollywood Iraq war films: a multimodal critical discourse study. Doctor of Philosophy. Bangor University. Available at: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/representation-of-iraqis-in-hollywood-iraq-war- films-a-multimodal-critical-discourse-study(6c4c0470-9056-4b72-a342-dc624be3e96a).html. [Accessed: 29 March 2021]. Al-Nima, S. (2018). The Muslim Other: An Analysis of American Filmic and Televisual Representations of Muslims and Arabs. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Colorado at Boulder. Available at: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/6m311p847?locale=en. [Accessed: 22 May 2021]. Altheide, D. (1984). ‘Media Hegemony: A Failure of Perspective’. Oxford Journals. 48 (2), pp. 476- 490. Amirian, M. R. (2012). A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Images of Iranians in Western Movies: The Case of Iranium. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature. 1 (5), pp. 1-13. Anon. (2020). ‘New ABC and Netflix series Stateless is a show about refugees, so why is the cast so white?’. ABC. 28 February. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/iview- stateless-detention-cate-blanchett-yvonne-strahovski/12005918. [Accessed: 22 May 2021]. Bell, P. (2001). Content Analysis of Visual Images. In van Leeuwen, T., Jewitt, C. (Eds.) Handbook of Visual Analysis. pp. 10-34. Booker, M.K., & Daraiseh, I. (2019). Figures. In Consumerist Orientalism: The Convergence of Arab and American Popular Culture in the Age of Global Capitalism (pp. vii–viii). London: I.B. Tauris. Available at: http://www.bloomsburycollections.com/consumerist-orientalism- the-convergence-of-arab-and-american-popular-culture-in-the-age-of-global- capitalism/figures. [Accessed: 22 May 2021].

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Brandl, J. (2017). The Power of Discourse: Analysing the Exclusion of Discourses Within the Field of Working Time Regulation. BA Thesis. Lund University. Available at: https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8907621&fileOId=8913 007. [Accessed: 10 April 2021]. Burnett, L. (1998). Issues in immigrant settlement in Australia. Sydney. Macquarie University. Castles, S., Hass, H.D., Miller, J. M. (2014). The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Fifth ed). Palgrave Macmillan. New York. Chambliss. D. and Schutt, R. (2019). Making Sense of the Social World: methods of investigation. 6th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications Ltd. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design, Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches (3rd edition). Sage Publications. Davie, G. (2011). The Hero Soldier: Portrayals od Soldiers in War Films. Master of Arts Thesis. University of South Florida. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4259&context=etd. [Accessed: 23 May 2021]. Diamond, I., Quinby, L. (1988). Feminism & Foucault Reflections on Resistance. Northeastern University Press. Düzgit, S. A. & Rumelili, B. (2018). ‘Discourse Analysis: Strengths and Shortcomings’. All Azimuth 0 (0). pp. 1-21. El Aidi, A., Yechouti, Y. (2017). ‘Michel Foucault’s Theory of Discourse in Edward Said’s Theory of Orientalism’. The Criterion: An International Journal in English. 8 (IV), pp. 1059-1072. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Fairclough, N. (1992). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. New York. Longman Publishing. Fairclough, N. (1995). Media Discourse. London: Hodder Education part of Hachette Livre UK. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London. Routledge. Fernandez, B. (2020). ‘Tehran: New Israeli spy thriller is Orientalist brainwashing’. Middle East Eye. 1 September. Available at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/tehran-new-israeli- spy-thriller-orientalist-brainwashing. [Accessed: 23 May 2021]. Foreman, A. (2020). ‘The overwhelming whiteness of Netflix's 'Stateless' undermines its good intentions’. Mashable. 9 July. Available at: https://mashable.com/article/stateless-netflix- review/?europe=true. [Accessed: 2 May 2021]. Galtung, J., (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), pp. 167- 191. Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural peace. Journal of Peace Research, 27 (3), pp. 291-305. Griffiths, E. (2020). ‘Meet the cast of Netflix drama Stateless: From stars of The Handmaid's Tale to Moana – all the actors you can expect to see in this Australian immigration drama starring Cate Blanchett’. RadioTime.com. 7 July. Available at:

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/stateless-netflix-cast-characters/. [Accessed: 16 April 2021]. Guina, A. (2019). ‘Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Called Iraqis ‘Primitive Monkeys’ in Second Audio Recording, Report Says’. Time. 12 March. Available at: https://time.com/5549523/audio-tucker-carlson-racist-iraq/. [Accessed: 2 April 2021]. Hall, S. (1997). ‘The Spectacle of the ‘Other’’. In Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Edited by Stuart Hall, 223–285. London: SAGE Harle, V. (2000). The enemy with a thousand faces: The tradition of the other in western political thought and history. Westport, CT. Praeger. Hawari, Y. (2020). ‘Israel’s propaganda war waged through TV shows’. Aljazeera. 12 February. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/2/12/israels-propaganda-war-waged- through-tv-shows. [Accessed: 20 May 2021]. Herman, Edward S. (1988). Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media. New York. Pantheon Books. Hodgkins. A. (2018). ‘Mirroring the Other: Review of Netflix Series Fauda’. The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. 17 November. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/38542318/Mirroring_the_Other_Review_of_Netflix_Series_Faud a. [Accessed: 16 May 2021]. Iedema, R. (2001). Analysing Film and Television: a Social Semiotic Account of Hospital: an Unhealthy Business. In van Leeuwen, T., Jewitt, C. (Eds.) Handbook of Visual Analysis. pp. 183-202. Ivanič, S. (2015). The construction of identity through visual intertextuality in a Bohemian early modern travelogue. Visual Communication. 14(1). pp. 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357214554544. Jewitt, C., Oyama, R. (2001). Visual Meanind: a Social Semiotic Approach. .In van Leeuwen, T., Jewitt, C. (Eds.) Handbook of Visual Analysis. pp. 134-156. Joyella, M. (2021). ‘Tucker Carlson Leads Fox News To Big Win In Weekly Cable News Ratings’. Forbes. 23 March. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2021/03/23/tucker-carlson-leads-fox-news-to-a- big-win-in-weekly-cable-news-ratings/?sh=5747a0784a1c. [Accessed: 2 April 2021]. Jørgensen, M. and Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Khalidi, M. (2020). ‘Netflix Series Fauda as an Effective Tool of Israeli Propaganda’. Institute for Palestine Studies. 15 June. Available at: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650188. [Accessed: 23 May 2021]. Lockard, J. (2018). ‘No Way to Treat the Neighbours: The Problem with Fauda’. Souciant. 13 September. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/37403626/No_Way_to_Treat_the_Neighbours_The_Problem_wit h_Fauda. [Accessed: 17 May 2021]. Miller, S. (1990). Foucault on Discourse and Power. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory. (76). pp. 115-125. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41801502.

Stefan Maatouk 930901-0313

Mohamed, F. (2017). White heroes and princes of the East - A Critical Discourse Analysis of the representational practices of Whitewashing. BA Thesis. Stockholm University. Available at: https://su.diva- portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1201737/FULLTEXT01.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0_ffjZjFLuPSK68IoP X8PtCt5HBvlOmFADHk7t6hAZAgtnF8QZu5SL7mg. [Accessed: 22 May 2021]. Mulder, L. (2016). Frantz Fanon, Internalized Oppression and the Decolonization of Education. West Indies. Usmon Line. Nielsen, J. (2007). Camera Movement in Narrative Cinema - Towards a Taxonomy of Functions. University of Aarhus. Available at: https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/52113417/Camera_Movement_0910.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3fJKNzNF 7phVRxg6BJFAu4cPZzukHsXLczdBzXGEEQkpB2NqGjeuyyot8. [Accessed: 22 May 2021]. Nosowitz, D. (2015). ‘The Hygiene and the History: We Investigate Post-Pooping Protocol’. Atlas Obscura. 10 December. Available at: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/we-asked- experts-how-best-to-wipe-one-s-butt-they-didn-t-know. [Accessed: 2 April 2021]. Pietromarchi, M. (2021). ‘Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds’. Aljazeera. 21 May. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/21/jubilation-in-gaza-as- ceasefire-takes-effect-palestine-israel- live?fbclid=IwAR0jDAeF63P1s_e2bVc5koG_OW76txfu9efq5jujSFfY7TpocjvFT7xI-Zc. [Accessed: 22 May 2021]. Rabinow, P. (1984). The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books. Said, Edward W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books. Silver, C. (2018). ‘"Gods of Egypt": A Deeply Problematic Film About the Ancient World’. Liveabout.com. 15 April. Available at: https://www.liveabout.com/gods-of-egypt- problematic-film-3959444. [Accessed: 4 May 2021]. Smith, A. (2016). Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy. In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Eds.), Color of Violence (pp. 66-73). New York, USA: Duke University Press. Türkoğlu, H., Türkoğlu, S. (2021). ‘Orientalism, Islamophobia, and the Concept of Otherization Through Civil Conflict, Digital Platform Netflix: The Example of the Messiah Series’. In I. Tombul, & G. Sarı (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Contemporary Approaches to Orientalism in Media and Beyond (pp. 730-759). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998- 7180-4.ch042. Walliman, N. (2017). Research Methods: The Basics. London, New York: Routledge. Ward, C. (2009). ‘Origins of the Common Fork’. Leite’s Culinaria. 6 May. Available at: https://leitesculinaria.com/1157/writingsoriginsfork.html?fbclid=IwAR37VYdAzd7Ph_61bB FPtkmo7GrleLm2F6U0aqmo3g7BKLn3toongaMmVY. [Accessed: 2 April 2021]. Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist Practice and Post-Structuralist Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.