Islam and Terrorism in Post 9/11th Literature

Although it has been always difficult to provide an adequate and comprehensive definition of “Terrorism”, Islam has been falsely and closely associated with to this concept in post 9/11th literature. Focusing on Joseph Geha’s Alone and All Together (2002), Laila Halaby’s Once on a Promised Land (2007), and Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), I explain how Islam and the Arabic identity—which relates to Islam in one way or another—become responsible for the misery experienced by the Arab-American minority after the terrorist attacks of 9/11th. In the aforementioned works, Islam and the Arab ethnicity are entrapped under the strong feelings of patriotism and Americanism in post 9/11 United States. Islam falsely becomes the religion of terrorists who are referred to as radical Arabs and who are not recognized as patriotic citizens of the United States

Earnest Hemingway: Truth & Fiction

The difference between fiction, reality and truth has been a subject of a long debate since Plato excluded literature from his Utopia. Plato insists that literature is a thrice-removed reality or at least an inferior imitation of it. Aristotle, on the other hand, believes that literature might be an improved version of reality. This article explores the possibilities of bridging the gab between fiction and reality and if literature has the power to express truth. I focus the discussion on Earnest Hemingway’s An Old Man at the Bridge, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and a collection of his nonfiction writing- his Spanish Civil War Dispatches. Hemingway indeed managed to portray what he refers to as “absolute truth” in his fiction more than he does in his journalism

Brother-Sister Relationships in Early Modern Drama

This study aims to evaluate the commodified brother-sister relationship in Early Modern drama. It examines three different samples from three major playwrights of this time period: Isabella and Claudio in William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (1603), Charles and Susan in Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), and Giovanni and Annabella in John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1632). The three aforementioned cases are closely evaluated through a Marxist-feminist lens. The study finds out that the brothers in the three examined plays are not very different since they all encourage their sisters to sacrifice their chastity to achieve some sort of personal interest. Interestingly enough, the sisters vary in their responses to their brothers’ requests of offering their bodies to help their brothers. Obviously, Shakespeare offers the ideal version of a sister who does everything in her power to save a brother. Yet, she refuses to offer her body in return to his freedom in spite of her brother’s desperate calls to offer her virginity to Angelo to save the former’s life. Susan of Heywood is also similar to Isabella of Shakespeare since she refuses to sell herself in return to the money needed to save her brother. However, Ford offers the ugliest version of a brother-sister relationship. The brother wants to have a love affair with his sister who yields to his sexual advances and eventually gets pregnant