The abject/the terrorist/the reel Arab – a point of intersection

What is it about?

Abject representations of terrorists post September 11th, 2001 have flooded the media. These images of abjection, however, are problematic as they solidify the ugly image of the Hollywood Arab, in which Arabs are generally viewed as one whole mass. The terrorist’s image conforms to the modality set by film, and by mirroring the reel image it obfuscates the line between the real and the unreal. This author proposes that such portrayals have been successful as placing the Arab within the abject, a priori not human.

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