Challenging the Stereotype of the Violent Muslim/Arab in a sample of three American modern novels: Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, and Lorraine Adams Harbor

Abstract

The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) marked a change observed inthe world’s focus on Islam and Arabs/Middle Easterners specifically. Post 9/11 fiction is highly characterized by Orientalist stereotyping. Islam is claimed to nurture terrorism, and promote bloodshed, and Arabs/Middle Easternersare called the “terrorists” who have beenbehind the attacks.Asa result, a powerful massive and aggressive literary attack has been directed towards contemporary Arab and Muslim societies for their “violence.”In the light of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), this article seeks to discuss three post 9/11 American literary works and highlight their writers’ positive portrayal of the main Arab/Muslim characters, a portrayal which dismantles the stronglyestablished stereotype of violence that post 9/11 fiction emphatically mirrors. These works are Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs (2009), Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs (2013) and Lorraine Adams Harbor (2004). By exploiting these writers’ portrayal of the protagonists of the novels and by referring to keynovels inpost 9/11fictionwhichoffer key features ofthe stereotype of violence, we aim at demonstrating that Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the stairs, Claire Messud’sThe Woman Upstairs and Lorraine Adams’ Harbor challenge the stereotype of violent Arabs/Muslims spread in the aftermath of 9/11.