John Updike’s Terrorist: Islamist Misogyny or a Backlash on American Feminist Propaganda?

Abstract

The United States of America launched its war on terror in October, 2001. The war was declared both as a fight againstterrorism and a mission to liberate the powerless, oppressed Muslim women. The Orientalist representation of Muslimwomen as a victim of their misogynistic culture is observed to have been re-invented by this twin rhetoric of war on terror ofthe American Government. Following the assumption that American literary artists would devote their artistic talent insupport of their government, critics and scholars have excessively approached post 9/11 literature through Edward Said’stheory of Orientalism. While it is true that some American artists represent the conflict to be between two civilizations(modern vs backward), but the theory affect has made it difficult to imagine a western literary depiction without anOrientalist lens. Consequently, western texts become vulnerable to misunderstanding or biased reading. John Updike’sTerrorist (2006), for example, has been read as an Orientalist text in which women are used to depict Muslim frustrationtoward women liberation. Focusing on the representation of women, this article explores Updike’s text as a backlash onAmerican feminist politicized discourse, a new strategy of narrative to encounter the dominant narrative and challenge thetradition of Orientalism.