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Image Projection and Perception in Saudi-American Contexts

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Image Projection and Perception in Saudi-American Contexts “DOUBLE REFRACTION”: IMAGE PROJECTION AND PERCEPTION IN SAUDI-AMERICAN CONTEXTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY by Ghaleb Alomaish A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Comparative Literature West Lafayette, Indiana May 2020 THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE APPROVAL Dr. Ahmed Idrissi Alami, Chair School of Interdisciplinary Studies Department of Comparative Literature Dr. Aparajita Sagar School of Interdisciplinary Studies Department of English Dr. Shaun F. D. Hughes School of Interdisciplinary Studies Department of English Dr. Beate I. Allert School of Interdisciplinary Studies Department of Comparative Literature Approved by: Dr. Venetria K. Patton Head of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies 2 For my parents, wife, siblings, and family who helped me in all things great and small For my son, Ghassan In loving memory of my late grandfathers Abdullah M. Alomaish and Ghaleb H. Ja’afari 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing my dissertation was the most challenging, yet most rewarding of endeavors. The completion of this project would not have been possible without the support and assistance of the following great people. I would like to heartfully thank the members of my committee: Prof. Aparajita Sagar, Prof. Beate Allert, and Prof. Shaun Hughes. I thank Prof. Sagar for her profound belief in my work and my abilities, Prof. Allert for her ingenious and insightful suggestions, Prof. Hughes for his unparalleled knowledge and exceptional help with formatting and editing. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Prof. Ahmed Idrissi, for his guidance and patience. I cannot be more thankful for his unwavering and unlimited support over the years. I greatly benefited from our discussions and stimulating conversations as well as the comments I received on these occasions. To all four committee members, I say thank you. I am deeply indebted to your assistance, dedication, kindness, and your ability to just be there for me when I needed it. You were extremely generous with your time, constructive feedback, sharp revision suggestions, and encouraging compliments. I cannot leave Purdue University without mentioning Dr. Charles Ross. Thank you for all the help and assistance. Many thanks should also go to my previous professors: John N. Duvall, Stacy E. Holden, Angelica Duran, Benjamin Lawton, Alfred J. López, and Lynne Jeanne Miles-Morillo. Very thankful to have found a community like Purdue University that offered me a most cherished comparative perspective. 4 I am also grateful to our great Graduate Coordinator, Brandi Plantenga, for her professionalism, efficiency, and help. I cannot thank her enough for all the quick and prompt responses. She makes the most stressful process a breeze! I am especially thankful to my parents, Riyhan and Faiyqah, for their wonderful concern and passionate support during my stay in the U.S. and whose love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. I want also to thank my siblings for their generosity, unconditional love, and cheerful words when they are most needed. My wife, Hind, has been extremely supportive of me throughout this entire process and through all my travails. She has made countless sacrifices to help me get to this point and has made them the best years of my life. She was as important to this dissertation getting done as I was. Thank you, my dear, for your understanding and unending inspiration. Along with her, I want to acknowledge my son, Ghassan, who is a great source of love and relief from scholarly endeavor. Finally, I would also like to thank all my extended family, parents-in-law, and friends living in Saudi Arabia and the United States. West Lafayette, Indiana Ramadan 22, 1441 / May 15, 2020 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 10 Introduction of the Problem ..................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER ONE HISTORY AND THEORY .............................................................................. 14 1.1. Early Encounters with the “Orient” in American Culture (Snapshot) ............................. 14 1.2. Orientalism and Shaping the Image of Mormonism in American Culture ...................... 22 1.3. An Overview of Saudi Literature ..................................................................................... 35 Education ......................................................................................................................... 35 Saudi Novel ..................................................................................................................... 36 1.4. Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, and Methodology ...................................... 40 1.5. Why Saudi Literature? ...................................................................................................... 47 1.6. Contribution of This Study ............................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER TWO OIL ENCOUNTERS: OTHERNESS BETWEEN POSTCOLONIALITY AND (NEO)ORIENTALISM ....................................................................................................... 59 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 59 2.1. Shifting Sands: The First Official Encounter ................................................................... 64 Mudun Al-Milh ....................... 68 مدن الملح Oil Encounter: “Crude” Impressions in Munif’s .2.2 Al-Badawi Al-Sagir .......................... 76 البدوي الصغير Oil and the Exposure to the World in .2.3 2.4 Portrayals Of Bedouin(Ism) ............................................................................................... 88 Representations of (Bedouin) Saudis in George Potter’s The White Bedouin ................ 88 “[T]he unwritten law of the desert”: Approaching Nomadism ....................................... 97 Colliding Images: Representations of Al-Ibrahim ........................................................ 109 2.5. Masculinities of the Encounter: Body and Power in Vincent Meis Eddie’s Desert Rose ................................................................................................................................................. 115 6 CHAPTER THREE FEMINISM AND PARATEXTUALITY OF (NEO)ORIENTALISM .... 124 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 124 3.1. Cross-Cultural Influence of Orientalist Discourse ......................................................... 124 3.2. Rebranding Orientalist Discourse of (Saudi) Arabia ...................................................... 128 3.3. Modern Romances, (Neo)Orientalism and Gender Politics ........................................... 138 Bedouin Women Between Romanticizing and Re-inscribing Orientalism ............................ 141 3.4. Visualizing The (In)Visibility: Imagining Norah in The White Bedouin ....................... 141 3.5. Veiling and Western Gaze .............................................................................................. 145 3.6. Intertextuality and Gender .............................................................................................. 152 3.7. Rerouting Frankincense Trail: Gender and Identity Politics .......................................... 158 3.8. Scheherazade Revisioned: Norah in (Saudi) Arabian Nights ........................................ 165 3.9. “Mechanical Sea Monster”: Travel and Encounter with Technology ............................ 170 CHAPTER FOUR GEOGRAPHIES OF DIFFERENCE AND THE POLITICS OF IMAGINING SAUDI (ARABIA) SPACE ................................................................................. 176 Religious Spatiality ................................................................................................................ 176 4.1. Saudi Arabia as Biblical Space: Representations of Saudi Spatiotemporal Space in The White Bedouin ......................................................................................................................... 176 Identity Politics: Otherness, Desert Space, And Cosmopolitan Modernity ........................... 185 فخاخ الرائحةBetween Two Spaces: Mapping the Personal and Spatial Narrative in .4.2 Fikhakh Ar-Raʼiha .................................................................................................................. 185 4.3. “Grandma is my Library”: The Gendering of Diasporic Space and Positioning Oral Maimounah ................................................................................................. 204 ميمونة Heritage in CHAPTER FIVE CONTESTING RADICAL DISCOURSE: 9/11 FROM A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE........................................................................................................................... 232 5.1 An Overview of Fictions of 9/11 ..................................................................................... 232 7 اﻹرهابي A Distant Echo of 9/11: Conceptualizing Terrorism in Kobek’s ATTA, Thabit’s 5.2 Al Intihar Al Maajour .................................
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