University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2011 The Visual Divide Islam Vs. The West, Image Peception In Cross- cultural Contexts Hatem Nazir Akil University of Central Florida Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Akil, Hatem Nazir, "The Visual Divide Islam Vs. The West, Image Peception In Cross-cultural Contexts" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 1819. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/1819 THE VISUAL DIVIDE: ISLAM VS. THE WEST, IMAGE PERCEPTION IN CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXTS by HATEM NAZIR AKIL B.A. Damascus University, 1984 Post-Graduate Diplome Damascus University, 1987 B.F.A. Academy of Dramatic Arts, 1988 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2011 Major Professor: Barry Mauer © 2011 Hatem Akil ii ABSTRACT Do two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we‘re always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socio- ideological frames that can only be liberated through an active and critical relationship with the image. The image itself, albeit ubiquitous, is never unimplicated - at once violated and violating; with both its creator and its perceiver self-positioned as its ultimate subject. I follow a trace of the image within the context of a supposed Islam versus the West dichotomy; its construction, instrumentalization, betrayals, and incriminations. This trace sometimes forks into multiple paths, and at times loops unto itself, but eventually moves towards a traversal of a visual divide. I apply the trace as my methodology in the sense suggested by Derrida, but also as a technology for finding my way into and out of an epistemological labyrinth. The Visual Divide comprises five chapters: Chapter One presents some of the major themes of this work while attempting a theoretical account of image perception within philosophical and cross-cultural settings. I use this account to understand and undermine contemporary rhetoric (as in the works of Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis) that seems intent on theorizing a supposed cultural and historical dichotomies between Islam and the West iii In Chapter Two, I account for slogan chants heard at Tahrir Square during the January 25 Egyptian revolution as tools to discovering a mix of technology, language and revolution that could be characterized as hybrid, plural and present at the center of which lies the human body as subject to public peril. Chapter Three analyzes a state of visual divide where photographic evidence is posited against ethnographic reality as found in postcards of nude and semi-nude Algerian Muslim women in the 19th century. I connect this state to a chain of visual oppositions that place Western superiority as its subject and which continues to our present day with the Abu Ghraib photographs and the Mohammed cartoons, etc. Chapter Four deploys the image of Mohamed al-Durra, a 3rd grader who was shot dead, on video, at a crossroads in Gaza, and the ensuing attempts to reinterpret, recreate, falsify and litigate the meaning of the video images of his death in order to propagate certain political doxa. I relate the violence against the image, by the image, and despite the image, to a state of pure war that is steeped in visuality, and which transforms the act of seeing into an act of targeting. In Chapter Five, I integrate the concept of visuality with that of the human body under peril in order to identify conditions that lead to comparative suffering or a division that views humanity as something other than unitary and of equal value. I connect the figures of der Muselmann, Shylock, Othello, the suicide bomber, and others to subvert a narrative that claims that one‘s suffering is deeper than another‘s, or that life could be valued differently depending on the place of your birth, the color of your skin, or the thickness of your accent. iv Finally, in the Epilogue: Tabbouleh Deterritorialized, I look at the interconnected states of perception and remembering within diasporic contexts. Cultural identity (invoked by an encounter with tabbouleh on a restaurant menu in Orlando) is both questioned and transformed and becomes the subject of perception and negotiation. v This work of many years is dedicated to the women of my life: To Amira, with my appreciation and apologies for all the times that daddy couldn‘t play because he was busy with ―homework‖, To Leila, so she may continue to see beauty in everything, To Sarah, who already knows that critical argumentation has its benefits, To Hannah, so she may know how endless are passionate pursuits, To Beth, with love and gratitude for a partnership of enlightenment and tenderness, To my mother, Afaf, so she could see that her hard work finally paid off, And, to the one who taught me everything about life, my grandmother, Shahriban, no mythology could contain your story … no word could express the feeling. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge with the utmost gratitude Dr. Barry Mauer for being an inspiration and great support ever since I took a Theory class with him and throughout my T&T work, but mostly during the dissertation process. He has always been not only patient and understanding, but also gracious in giving me the freedom to work on topics that I am passionate about as well as the confidence to believe that what I was working on was not sheer and unbridled insanity. I also wish to thank my committee members, Dr. Blake Scott for opening doors for me to work on globalization issues and to learn how to connect these issues to larger epistemological concerns; Dr. Francois-Xavier Gleyzon for his valuable insights and much appreciated willingness to work with me even as soon as he arrived at UCF; and Dr. Bruce Janz for his support as well as his inspirational work. I was ready to flee the T&T program after two classes in Research Methods when Dr. David Wallace encouraged me to stay and made me feel that I can belong ―in the conversation.‖ For that (and much more), I owe him thanks and appreciation. Specifically, I wish to thank Dr. Craig Saper for his brilliant and outstanding work, as well as for his unwavering support while he was at UCF, including giving me the opportunity to be a bricoleur with course-designing one of his classes. My thanks also go to Dr. Melody Bowdon for her academic and professional support. vii My family deserves both thanks for standing by me and apologies for my absent- mindedness and inattentiveness during the months and years of my research. For that (and innumerable and nameless other reasons), I shall be eternally grateful Finally, I wish to thank the Texts and Technology program and the English Department at UCF for offering such a unique learning opportunity and making it exciting and rewarding to belong and be involved. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... xii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: TECHNOLOGIES OF SEEING ..................................................................... 12 Imagined Enemies ............................................................................................................. 25 Blue-Eyed Jesus ................................................................................................................ 26 The Visual Divide ............................................................................................................. 35 Seeing is Not Believing; Believing is Seeing ................................................................... 36 Who Perceives Whom? ..................................................................................................... 45 The Critical Eye ................................................................................................................ 52 Will to Visibility ............................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER TWO: THE SOUND OF THE REVOLUTION ........................................................ 62 CHAPTER THREE: COLONIAL GAZE—NATIVE BODIES .................................................. 76 The Photograph ................................................................................................................. 77 Orientalism ........................................................................................................................ 78 The Postcard.....................................................................................................................