Angemeer, Alicia
(2012)
Reading the Other and Reading Ourselves: An Interpretive Study of Amazon.com Reviews on Bestsellers about Muslims.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Since September 11, 2001, Western readers have been turning to bestselling texts written by or about Muslims in their need to learn more about Muslims. These texts promise an insider’s view of predominantly Muslim countries and peoples and are informally influencing and educating many Western readers in their perceptions of Muslims because they are so widely read and discussed. In this study, I explore how Westerners are reading and interpreting the Muslim Other as portrayed in these bestsellers and how they are often unaware of the Orientalist lens through which they read and interpret the Other. I also consider how Westerners may read these texts more critically and responsibly.
I perform a conceptual analysis of how Western readers read and interpret the Muslim Other, as expressed through the “texts” of their Amazon.com reviews of bestsellers Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Kite Runner, and Three Cups of Tea. Using Edward Said’s (1978, 1993) postcolonial theoretical concept of Orientalism and employing postcolonial theorists who expand on Said’s concept to craft my theoretical frame though which I analyze these texts, I illuminate the texts’ problematics associated with representations of identity and otherness to show how their reading responses perpetuate negative, colonizing stereotypes of Muslims. I then bring in a second theoretical frame, reader response theory, to reinterpret my first analysis of their reading responses within the context of pedagogical challenges of teaching students to read the Other. In crafting this second theoretical frame I provide an added perspective of a poststructural consideration of the relationship between Self and Other and utilize the work of such theorists as Boler (1994), Burwell, Davis, and Taylor (2008), Felman and Laub (1992), Grobman (2007), Taylor (2007a, 2007b), Todd (2003), and Welch (2000), whose challenges to reveal contextualized reading practices and present more responsible approaches to reading are developed from cross-disciplinary discussions of reading the Other. I also explore the pedagogical implications of reading the Other, challenging the way in which reading the Other is currently approached in teaching multicultural literature in the elementary and secondary classroom.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
29 August 2012 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
7 May 2012 |
| Approval Date: |
29 August 2012 |
| Submission Date: |
1 August 2012 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
230 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Administrative and Policy Studies |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Postcolonial Theory
Reader Response Theory
Edward Said
Orientalism
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| Date Deposited: |
29 Aug 2012 18:17 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 14:01 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/13329 |
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