My dissertation is the first empirically based study to closely examine the impacts of 9/11 on Canadian Muslim youth. It develops a critical analysis of how the general public supported by state practices, undermine the citizenship of Canadian Muslims, thereby impacting their identity formation. Conducting qualitative analysis, through the use of 50 in-depth interviews with Canadian Muslim men and women, aged 18 to 30, I have arrived at several important findings. These include findings related to citizenship, the racialization of gender identities and identity formation. First, despite having legal citizenship, Canadian Muslims often do not have access to substantive citizenship (the ability to exercise rights of legal citizenship), revealing the precarious nature of citizenship for minority groups in Canada. My research shows that the citizenship rights of Canadian Muslims may be undermined because they do not have access to allegiance and nationality, important facets of citizenship. Second, young Canadian Muslims are racialized and othered through increasingly stereotypical conceptions about their gender identities. Muslim men are perceived as barbaric and dangerous and Muslim women are imagined as passive and oppressed by their communities. As a result of these dominant conceptions, in their struggle against racism, young Canadian Muslims have to invest a great deal of time establishing themselves as thinking, rational, educated and peaceful persons. Third, to cope with their marginalization, many young Canadian Muslims have asserted their Muslim identities. In order to understand this social process, I extend the work done on ‘reactive ethnicity’ and theorize Muslim identity formation in a post 9/11 context, something not yet been done in academic literature. To do so, I coin the term ‘reactive identity formation,’ and illustrate that the formation of reactive identities is not limited to strengthening ethnic identity and that religious minority groups can experience a similar phenomenon. Furthermore, I find that while claiming their Muslim identity, most of my interviewees also retain their Canadian identity in order to resist the notion that they are not Canadian. By doing so, they attempt to redefine what it means to be Canadian.

My dissertation is the first empirically based study to closely examine the impacts of 9/11 on Canadian Muslim youth. It develops a critical analysis of how the general public supported by state practices, undermine the citizenship of Canadian Muslims, thereby impacting their identity formation. Conducting qualitative analysis, through the use of 50 in-depth interviews with Canadian Muslim men and women, aged 18 to 30, I have arrived at several important findings. These include findings related to citizenship, the racialization of gender identities and identity formation. First, despite having legal citizenship, Canadian Muslims often do not have access to substantive citizenship (the ability to exercise rights of legal citizenship), revealing the precarious nature of citizenship for minority groups in Canada. My research shows that the citizenship rights of Canadian Muslims may be undermined because they do not have access to allegiance and nationality, important facets of citizenship. Second, young Canadian Muslims are racialized and othered through increasingly stereotypical conceptions about their gender identities. Muslim men are perceived as barbaric and dangerous and Muslim women are imagined as passive and oppressed by their communities. As a result of these dominant conceptions, in their struggle against racism, young Canadian Muslims have to invest a great deal of time establishing themselves as thinking, rational, educated and peaceful persons. Third, to cope with their marginalization, many young Canadian Muslims have asserted their Muslim identities. In order to understand this social process, I extend the work done on ‘reactive ethnicity’ and theorize Muslim identity formation in a post 9/11 context, something not yet been done in academic literature. To do so, I coin the term ‘reactive identity formation,’ and illustrate that the formation of reactive identities is not limited to strengthening ethnic identity and that religious minority groups can experience a similar phenomenon. Furthermore, I find that while claiming their Muslim identity, most of my interviewees also retain their Canadian identity in order to resist the notion that they are not Canadian. By doing so, they attempt to redefine what it means to be Canadian.

The history of rhetorics in documentary film is a long one. The French brothers Louise and Auguste Lumiére were among the first persons who produced a documentary and their work has had a big impression in the history of documentary during the 1900 century. John Grierson has been called “the father” of documentary film. He produced films in the English speaking part of the world and he is the founder of the concept “documentary film”. Propaganda filming has a big part in the history of documentary film. Most frequently it appeard in Germany before and during the secound WW II, but propaganda films has been produced in Great Britain and USA as well as in other parts of the world. Rhetorics are of current interest today. It effects the news, papers, magazines, books and movies. The purpose with this essay is to investigate the rhetorics in Michael Moores controversial documentary of September 11th, Fahrenheit 9/11. The main question is: what rhetorical tools does Michael Moore use in order to communicate his politcal message in Fahrenheit 9/11? The rhetorical analysis includes exordium, narratio, propsitio, argumentatio and conclusio as well as ethos, logos and pathos. In order to conduct the analysis I have used Kurt Johannesson’s book Retorik eller konsten att övertyga, Maria Karlberg and Brigitte Mral’s book Heder och påverkan. Att analysera modern retorik. And at last a chapter by Brigitte Mral named Retorikanalys in the book Metoder i kommunikationeverenskap, by Mats Ekström and Larsåke Larsson. For the background about the history of documentary film I have used Barsam M. Richard, Nonfiction Film A Critical History and Bjørn Sørenssen’s book Å fange virkeligheten –Dokumentarfilmens århundre.The analysis shows that Moore uses different rhetorical tools in order to point out that George W Bush is the wrong man for the role as the president of United States of America. Some of the most effective tools that Moores uses are his own voice, pictures who awakes emotions, recordings and sharp arguments. His way of using ethos, logos and pathos is very clear. The disposal can also be distinct discern, however there are some exceptions towards the classical rhetoric. One example is that Moore doesn´t describe the arrangement of the movie in exordium.

Echoing Edward Said’s Orientalism, and Homi Bhabha’s notion of the stereotype as mimicry (camouflage), this research project investigates the recent construction of a Muslim male identity as the Other and Self-Othering following the destruction by al- Qaeda of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, referred to colloquially as ‘post-9/11’. The fear of a bearded Muslim terrorist, of attacks from Muslim fundamentalist organizations, the distrust leading to extreme security measures and the subsequent laws contributing to the discrimination and radicalization of the Muslim community are analysed. This research identifies and explains the myths surrounding the Muslim cultural and religious practices relating to the traditional appearance of a Muslim male, specifically the beard and marks of prostration, along with associated imagery derived from the prayer rug, Muslim worship, Salat, and the mosque. Beehive metaphors in Western and Muslim art, history, literature and media are explored. The dualistic concepts surrounding the stereotypes and personifications that result in ‘otherness’ are the key aspects of this research. Using the binary nature of beehive metaphors, as well as both cultures’ propaganda about the West’s Crusade and Islam’s Jihad, the making of a post-9/11 Muslim identity as jihadi, martyr and terrorist are investigated, culminating in artworks comprising of self-portraiture, sculptures, prints, drawings and installation art. These express layers of interpretation of the clash of international political entities alongside the cultural contestations and religious belief systems within the Muslim culture, and reflections upon my own identity as a Muslim man divided between the East and the West. Due to its conceptual yet allegorical content, this research is descriptive, and is intended to lay the ground for future research aimed at examining the compounded variables of potential cultural clashes, religious conflicts, and political action.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 2005

Berlin, Freie Universiẗat, Diss., 2005. / Dateiformat: zip, Dateien im PDF-Format.

Mainz, Universiẗat, Diss., 2003.

While the negative effects of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 are still permeating throughout the United States, a few novelists have taken on the extreme task of writing about this historic event. Richard Gray describes the failure of language after the attack took place, yet novelists wanted to write about this tragedy anyway. Reading trauma in 9/11 is inevitable as it is important. In looking at three novels that deal with the events during and the aftermath of 9/11, I hope to consider the way art is used in these texts. In doing so, my thesis will look at the possibility of art being able to heal the wounds of this traumatic event. My second chapter will focus on the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. This novel depicts the effect 9/11 had on the child protagonist, Oskar, and follows him as he works through the trauma of losing his father in the South Tower. The third chapter of my thesis will discuss Don DeLillo's Falling Man, which offers a depiction of the powerful effect trauma has on the main characters in the novel, particularly Lianne. The performance artist is discussed at length. My fourth chapter will discuss the novel The Submission by Amy Waldman. Just as Maya Lin's submission for her Vietnam memorial sparked controversy, Waldman takes the same approach by casting an American Muslim as the artist and memorial architect for 9/11. While the previous novels focus on the personal effects of trauma on the characters, my chapter on The Submission will elucidate how trauma is negotiated on a national scale. I hope to answer such questions as: What do we expect in a memorial? What should we expect? What are the various demands survivors place on memorials?

The two most visible representations of Afghanistan are arguably Steve McCurry’s ‘Afghan Girl’ on the cover of National Geographic (June 1985) and Khaled Hosseini’s award-wining novel 'The Kite Runner' (2004). These two products laid the basic premise that images and ideas about Afghanistan have been circulated and commodified worldwide, especially qualities of the exotic, oppressed, and weak. Since print photography and literary works belong to the culture industry, this research seeks to enquire if performing arts, more specifically theatre, projected Afghanistan in similar ways. More precisely, this research asks how Afghan cultures and identities have been represented in the post-9/11 period. Borrowing the circuit of culture model (1997) from Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, this research then examines ten specific theatre performances within Afghanistan and outside Afghanistan in a spatio-temporal framework illustrating dynamic tensions from, and beyond, Kabul. Case studies from Kabul illustrate that Afghan cultures can be owned and regulated by competing stakeholders, including the Taliban, within its geopolitical boundaries. Case studies from/beyond Kabul show the export of Afghan cultures and performances outside Afghanistan, underscoring tropes of impoverishment and suffering while inviting or inciting international interventions and conciliations. Case studies beyond Kabul tend to imagine ‘Afghanistan’ by offering an ambivalent, and sometimes, contradictory response to the war on terror. This thesis argues that projective closure – the act of filling in absences and gaps to make sense of an Afghan narrative – often circulates and entrenches Afghans in victimhood tropes. Because there are constant fluctuations and contestations at what ‘Afghanistan’ was, is, and should be, Afghanistan as an imagined entity – or a global cultural commodity – becomes more evident. Derek Gregory was right to observe in 'The Colonial Present' (2004) that Afghanistan has been an object of international geopolitical manoeuvrings since the nineteenth century, and, as this thesis will show, even early twenty-first century. But the claw of the “colonial present” does not stem from hostilities enacted by imperial power, but a series of intimate engagements with non-government organisations, government agencies, embassies, foreign theatre directors, and even global audiences who uncritically celebrate narratives of Afghan heroism. This is further complicated by the readiness of local Afghan practitioners to consume and project themselves as victims of war who are in ‘need’ of foreign help. As such, the value that is being demanded and supplied in the global culture industry is still victimhood. Afghan cultures and identities are deeply embedded in contexts – situational, cultural, global – and unless these contexts are collocated and layered upon each other to add nuance to interrogate cultural practices, cultural workers and theatre practitioners continue to run the risks of reproducing conflicts, even if they are beyond the geographical space of Kabul – because the locations of the ‘local’ and ‘global’ are becoming increasingly intertwined.

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