The "evil" Arab has become a stock character in American popular
films, playing the villain opposite American "good guys" who fight
for "the American way." It's not surprising that this stereotype
has entered American popular culture, given the real-world
conflicts between the United States and Middle Eastern countries,
particularly since the oil embargo of the 1970s and continuing
through the Iranian hostage crisis, the first and second Gulf Wars,
and the ongoing struggle against al-Qaeda. But when one compares
the "evil" Arab of popular culture to real Arab people, the
stereotype falls apart. In this thought-provoking book, Tim Jon
Semmerling further dismantles the "evil" Arab stereotype by showing
how American cultural fears, which stem from challenges to our
national ideologies and myths, have driven us to create the "evil"
Arab Other.
Semmerling bases his argument on close readings of six films
(The Exorcist, Rollover, Black Sunday, Three Kings, Rules of
Engagement, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut), as well as
CNN's 9/11 documentary America Remembers. Looking at their
narrative structures and visual tropes, he analyzes how the films
portray Arabs as threatening to subvert American "truths" and
mythic tales--and how the insecurity this engenders causes
Americans to project evil character and intentions on Arab peoples,
landscapes, and cultures. Semmerling also demonstrates how the
"evil" Arab narrative has even crept into the documentary coverage
of 9/11. Overall, Semmerling's probing analysis of America's
Orientalist fears exposes how the "evil" Arab of American popular
film is actually an illusion that reveals more about Americans than
Arabs.
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