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Title Islamic Postcolonialism: Representation of Islam and the Muslims of Dagestan in Alisa Ganieva’s Selected Works

Author(s) SHEHLA RAHMAN

Abstract Orientalist representations have not ended; rather they have metamorphosed in the form of neo-Orientalism which delineates representation of Islam and Muslims. The present study investigates the representation of the Muslims of Dagestan and Islam in Alisa Ganieva’s selected works: Mountain and the Wall (2012, translated in 2015) and Bride and Groom (2015, translated in 2018). Dagestan, one of the Russian Republics, has often been portrayed as a region afflicted with turbulence and unrest owing to Islamic fundamentalism. Through the lens of Islamic postcolonialism, the researcher has analyzed and compared the selected novels with the Anglo-American and other neo-Orientalists portrayals. The result of examination of different aspects of representation reveals that Ganieva draws upon neo-Orientalist binaries and stereotypes; utilizing both the western and indigenous writers’ fixations and categories in representation of Islam and Muslims in her selected novels, she dexterously applies the neo-Orientalist framework of “good Muslim” and “Bad Muslim” to demonstrate observant Muslims as extremists, primitive, and intolerant brutes, whereas, non-observant Muslims as progressive, modern and civilized. These novels are essentially continuation of neo-Orientalist representation of Islam and the Muslims, chiefly employed to legitimize these depictions and thus justify ideological as well as physical war against these observant Muslims. This thesis sheds light on the extensive impact of neo-Orientalist stereotypes that reinforce negative portrayals. In addition to that, it analyzes that how not only the west and native informers from the East utilize it, but Russia and its native informers have also benefitted from it in their endeavor to erase the Islamic identity of Muslim majority Dagestan by feeding Islamophobia.

Type Thesis/Dissertation PhD

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2022-08-29

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