Description
Book SynopsisAyad Akhtar, the American Nation, and Its Others After 9/11: Homeland Insecurity examines playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar's contributions to multiple genres including film and theatre. This book situates Akhtar's oeuvre within the social and political context of post-9/11 American culture, marked by the creation of the Homeland Security State and the racialization of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians. It departs from many traditional studies of 9/11 literature by challenging the binary of victim and perpetrator and examining the continuing impact of the event on questions of American nationalism and belonging. Tracing a literary genealogy for Akhtar, it explores a broad range of issues represented in Akhtar's works such as globalization, the decline of American industry, terrorism, torture, generational conflicts, interracial love, gender and violence, the conflict between secular and religious valuesall issues which affect American nationalism both within and outside the nation's b
Trade ReviewA trenchant, much-needed rejoinder to the claim that Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar cynically fans the flames of Islamophobia, Lopamudra Basu’s study persuasively recasts his work as a critical response to neoliberal capitalism and American imperialism and as a savvy redeployment of genre conventions that date back to Shakespeare. -- Timothy Aubry, Baruch College
Ayad Akthar is rightly situated in the constellation of leading playwrights in the 21st century. Through rigorous theorizing, contextualization, and analysis, Basu yields striking new insights into Akthar's meditation on contemporary issues and themes pertinent to South Asian diasporic life and representations of Muslim American realities specifically. -- Jocelyn L. Buckner, Chapman University
Basu deftly explores Ayad Akhtar’s literary and creative work to study and complicate the conflation of national security with national interest as well as the befouling of institutional politics, which insidiously bled into the dominant political discourse in the United States and was used to promulgate Islamophobia. -- Nyla Ali Khan, Rose State College
This first book on Akhtar’s work contextualizes it well within an impressive range of scholarly debates and frameworks. Though I would wish for a tougher critical stance, especially regarding his play Disgraced, I appreciate the care Basu takes to situate his writing and establish its stakes in the aftermath of 9/11. -- Ambreen Hai, Smith College
I read Basu’s keenly insightful book while a Fulbright Scholar in Palestine. It illuminated the tensions within Islam globally and the construction of the Muslim as other. I will use Basu’s superb book with my Religious Studies and Creative Arts students to “trouble the waters” of Islamophobia and the homeland security state. -- Victoria Rue, San Jose State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Social and Political Context of 9/11 Chapter 1: The War Within: Masculinity and the Making of Muslim Radicals Chapter 2: The Racialization of Religion in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced and the Play in the American Public Sphere Chapter 3: Unaccommodated Woman: Muslim Women, Spirituality, and the Public Sphere in American Dervish and The Who and the What Chapter 4: Dangerous Liaisons: The Nexus of High Finance and Terrorism in The Invisible Hand and Junk Chapter 5: An Interview with Ayad Akhtar Conclusion: Theater and the Rebirth of Community References Index About the Author
