American Neocolonial Otherising Policy: Agonistic Identity in Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs and Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs

Colonialism and its literary reflections have been long interrogated in literary studies. With the advent of the 21st century, studying racial identities and how they are socio-politically otherised in the United States would reveal the rubric of identity politics that stand as an emblem of the present century politics. The present article is a sociopolitical analysis of racialized characters in Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs (2009) and Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs (2013). Applying Chantal Mouffe’s ideas on democratic paradox and agonistic pluralism, the present study suggests that in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, due to the feelings of anxiety and tension aroused by the 9/11 attacks, the American identities consider the racialized identities as sources of probable threats; however, those of other cultures and races are neocolonially tolerated rather than being eliminated. Hence, the hidden truth in the postmodern America, as reflected in the selected novels, is an antagonism toward those of other races or religions that is neocolonially controlled under the name of agonism.