Location
Stewart Center 310
Session Number
Session 10: 9/11, SUBJECTIVITY, AND OTHERNESS: COMPARATIVE READINGS IN LITERATURE AND FILM
Start Date
9-9-2011 10:45 AM
End Date
9-9-2011 12:15 PM
Abstract
The characters of Jess Walter’s novel and Khaled Khalifa’s are built as figures of terrorist or victim. According to Bertrand Gervais’ theory, a figure is first of all an object of obsession. The characters of these novels obsess us, questioning our cultural references which permit us to define who represents the terrorist and who represents the victim. Both novels play with these categories, underlining the manipulations of the images through various discourses. This questioning of usual conceptions is built through the use of lost characters, unable to communicate or simply live. These characters illustrate a crisis of the contemporary imaginary and subject.
Included in
American Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons
Terrorist or Victim? Comparative Analysis of the Characters in Jess Walter’s The Zero and Khaled Khalifa’s In Praise of Hatred
Stewart Center 310
The characters of Jess Walter’s novel and Khaled Khalifa’s are built as figures of terrorist or victim. According to Bertrand Gervais’ theory, a figure is first of all an object of obsession. The characters of these novels obsess us, questioning our cultural references which permit us to define who represents the terrorist and who represents the victim. Both novels play with these categories, underlining the manipulations of the images through various discourses. This questioning of usual conceptions is built through the use of lost characters, unable to communicate or simply live. These characters illustrate a crisis of the contemporary imaginary and subject.