Rania Khalil's Flag Piece: The Issue of Imperative Patriotism in Post-9/11 Arab American Theatre and Performance | ||
| مجلة بحوث الشرق الأوسط | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 31 May 2021 | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/mercj.2021.74073.1075 | ||
| Author | ||
| شيماء السيد محمد موافي* | ||
| مدرس مساعد لغة انجليزية- معهد الجزيرة العالي بالمقطم | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Before 9/11, there were no overwhelming matters that thrust Arab Americans into public attention. In general, Americans have a racist and distorted image of Arabs which is almost invariably negative. However, after 9/11, Arab Americans were doubly attacked, as disloyal, unpatriotic, and unwelcoming citizens; they become regular targets of racial profiling and institutional detention. Although they suffered like every American citizen at the horror of the attacks and some lost their relatives and beloved ones too, they were blamed for events in which they have no hand. Arab Americans became guilty by association, i.e. just because they are of Arab origin or Islam followers. Thus, the question of Arab Americans' patriotism has become highly controversial in the sense that they become the devil incarnated and the enemy within. Accordingly, it is important in this paper to explore two interrelated questions: First, what it means to be a patriot; and second, how the concepts of patriotism, belongingness, and Americanness define themselves among the Arab-American community in the period following 9/11. The critical theory of New Historicism is applied in the analysis of the selected representative solo performance, Rania Khalil's Flag Piece. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| September 11th attacks; Arab Americans; American Flag; Patriotism; Imperative Patriotism | ||
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