The Imperialistic Nostalgia in Jean Sasson's American Chick in Saudi Arabia: The Study of Life Narratives after September 11th

This article focuses on the notion of “life narrative” in Sasson’s American Chick in Saudi Arabia (2012) and tries to elaborate the relationships between the cultural, political discourses after 9/11 and the re-emergence of “life narratives” through the postcolonial perspectives of Edward Said and Sidonie Smith. To this end, notions like “identity” and “gender” are studied. It is argued that the re-emergence of “life narratives” in the multicultural era, despite its re-defined notion of the “self,” can only be traced back to prevalent neo-imperialist and Islamophobic inclinations in the West after 9/11. In other words, through foregrounding the hierarchy of “us vs. them,” such works perpetuate the recent neo-imperialist leanings in the West. However, the article’s attempt to disclose the effect of such works on the recent dissemination of Islamophobia in the West is complicated by the fact that even though Sasson’s “representation” of Saudi women would be considered to be affected by the neo-imperialist discourse, the fact, still, remains that they have been victimized by the suppressing Saudi regime.