Research Focus THE WESTERN CONSTRUCTION OF ISLAM AND THE MUSLIM WORLD IN IGNATIUS’ BODY OF LIES A THESIS.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
It has been stated in the previous chapter that the prominent aims of the research are to reveal how Islam and the Muslim world are constructed in Body of
Lies as a way of hegemony and to analyze the effects of the construction toward Islam and the Muslim world in the novel through discourses produced by Roger
Ferris, Joan Ferris, Edd Hoffman, Alice Melville, Suleiman, Hani Salaam, Sami Azhar, Nizar, and the narrator. Thus, to acquire the answers, this chapter is
focused on the related theories used and background information that can help the process of analysis. Since the theme of this research is included as a part of
postcolonial study, the research uses postcolonial theory which mainly derived from Said’s Orientalism which focuses on the concept of binary opposition
between the Orient and the Occident, power and knowledge as well as the proces of Orientalizing the Oriental to analyze the construction of Islam and its effects in
the novel. The background information includes the condition of Islam and the Muslim world, especially in the Middle East in 19
th
to 20
th
century. The emerge of postcolonial study itself is caused by some factors, one
most important of which is the relation of postcolonial nations to colonialism and colonial era. The word “post” here refers to the era after colonialism. Thus,
postcolonialism means the era after colonialism or after independence. Although many people say that the colonial era is dead, postcolonialism believes that “all
post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved this problem”
Ashcroft et al, 1995: 2. Further, they stated that postcolonial theory itself involves discussion about experience of various kinds: migration, slavery,
suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place, and responses to the influential master discourses of imperial Europe such as history,
philosophy and linguistics, and the fundamental experiences of speaking and writing by which all these come into being.
According to Lazarus 2004: 44 there is one of the anchors of postcolonialist critique which is latent and has been the fetish of Europe. It is
called as Eurocentrism. This term was first coined in the sixties of the 12
th
century Europe, 2013: 1. Eurocentrism means the practice of placing emphasize on
European or Western concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other culture Pop, 2008: 1. With Eurocentrism, individuals tend to see the world from
a western or specifically European mindset. It means that someone who is Eurocentric will see people, their culture or their history according to how the
European people will see them. Thus, there will be such a universal view upon the subjects which are being seen. Therefore, by holding onto this thought of style,
the West has been constructing the concept of “othering”, a negative view over non western cultures and races as “the Other”.
As one of the founders of postcolonial studies, in 1979, Edward Said gives an explanation of what caused Eurocentric thinking in the 18th and 19th century
in Europe. He explains in his book “Orientalism” that Europeans make representations of the rest of the world as the other by giving them a predicate
called as “the Orient”, while they called themselves as “the Occident”. In this
paradigm, there is a sharp distinction created between these two oppositions, and always the Occident who plays the dominant part. The Orient always gets the
negative predicate, while in the other site, as the opposition which plays the dominant part, the Occident always gets the positive predicate. The simple
example is when the West is shown to be civilized, automatically the East becomes uncivilized Europe, 2013: par.1. Such dichotomous thinking in
Orientalism is in line with the vision of Orientalism itself, that is dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient Said, 1978: 2-3, and indeed it
also causes Eurocentric visions which is crucial in promoting the idea of the imperial civilizing mission as a moral duty Hobson via Europe, 2013: par.4.
Hence, when Orientalism creating an image of the East from a European perspective, it is actually giving way for Eurocentrism; and automatically such
Orientalism becomes a legitimization of neocolonialism as well as imperialism Europe, 2013: par.4.