Reid • 95 Te Age of Sympathy: Re-examining discourses of Muslim terrorism in Hollywood beyond the ‘pre-’ and ‘post-9/11’ dichotomy Jay Reid – University of Adelaide
[email protected] Te events of September 11 did not herald a new age of terrorism, for terrorism had been primarily fuelled by religion since the 1980s; however, the 9/11 attacks did herald changes in the representation of terrorism in Hollywood cinema, with an increased frequency of Muslim antagonists, more sinister and deadly than their pre-9/11 compatriots. While pre- and post-9/11 images have been investigated in previous studies, the continued evolution of Middle Eastern characters in the decade since the attacks has rarely been discussed. Tis paper examines six Hollywood action flms released between 1991 and 2011 (a decade prior to and after the attacks) through an Orientalism critique, investigating how representations of Muslim terrorists in Western popular culture have evolved. Te fndings support earlier research on a discursive shift immediately post-9/11, but also reveal a second shift in representation, occurring approximately half a decade after the attacks. Cinematic representations immediately after the attacks positioned Muslim terrorists as sympathetic individuals seduced to commit acts of terrorism by religious fundamentalism. However, from 2007 onwards, representations again change, framing onscreen Muslim terrorists as willing participants in violent activities motivated by Islamic fundamentalism, with an absence of the earlier sympathetic positioning. Tis research builds on existing studies into cinematic representations of terrorism and extends our knowledge of the cinematic discourses of the Hollywood Muslim terrorist, a subject to which continued media and public attention is directed.