(By Aryavart International University, India)
Dr. Hazam Kamel Abd Al Janabi
Vol. 8, Jul-Dec 2019
Abstract:
This paper explores how contemporary fiction articulates and interprets postcolonial critiques of Western modernity, producing increasingly nuanced understandings of colonial and imperialist discourse, as well as of the effects of military alliances among powerful nations, resulting in the Iraq war and the War on Terror before it. Through a critically-informed reflection on subtleties of language, the paper concentrates on the secular/religious distinction, which has been brought into question in the recent work by Talal Asad and Timothy Fitzgerald. This paper's discussion of Ahmed Sa'dawi's 2014 Arabic Booker-winning novel, Frankenstein in Baghdad examines the novel's engagement with modern systems of knowledge-production and contemporary discourses of imperialism. A key institution here is the mass media and the role it plays in shaping public consciousness, particularly in relation to the interests of geopolitical forces such as the United States. My inquiry also probes the possibilities of transformation the novel suggests in relation to the Iraqi predicament – political in-fighting, economic instability, sectarian clashes, and social turmoil. The novel's suggestion for revaluating indigenous knowledges and practices as untapped resources for Iraq's complex identity is a critical move to cultural articulations as alternative to the Western hegemonic paradigm. Considering Sa'dawi's novel within the theoretical context identified in this paper is so intellectually productive that it bears relevance to actual experiences in postcolonial states like Iraq. This consideration can also yield insights into postcolonial knowledge as celebrating dialogue in and beyond difference.