TY - JOUR
T1 - Reading the veil of imperial discourse
T2 - Shakespeare and Arab-English accounts of the death of Diana
AU - Campbell, Charles
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This paper applies literary reading techniques to journalism. The texts under study are British editorial essays reacting to Arab journalism about the death of Princess Diana, a British national tragedy, and also a moment of unique Arab/Western interface, since she died in a car crash with her Egyptian lover, Dodi Fayed. The texts are about Arabs: one a response to Arab publications on Diana's death, the other a tendentious consideration of the possibility of conspiracy in her death. Literary parallels are made with Othello and Antony and Cleopatra, and correctives offered from contemporary sources. Inspired by the work of Edward Said and Rana Kabbani, the study reveals the hidden desires that obscure western descriptions of Arab reality, how Orientalist stereotypes invade the most liberal western prose; and that the voice of Iago is still speaking.
AB - This paper applies literary reading techniques to journalism. The texts under study are British editorial essays reacting to Arab journalism about the death of Princess Diana, a British national tragedy, and also a moment of unique Arab/Western interface, since she died in a car crash with her Egyptian lover, Dodi Fayed. The texts are about Arabs: one a response to Arab publications on Diana's death, the other a tendentious consideration of the possibility of conspiracy in her death. Literary parallels are made with Othello and Antony and Cleopatra, and correctives offered from contemporary sources. Inspired by the work of Edward Said and Rana Kabbani, the study reveals the hidden desires that obscure western descriptions of Arab reality, how Orientalist stereotypes invade the most liberal western prose; and that the voice of Iago is still speaking.
KW - Al-Ahram weekly
KW - Diana
KW - Dodi Al-Fayed
KW - Egypt
KW - Imperialism
KW - Orientalism Robert Fisk
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021645448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85021645448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021645448
SN - 1680-0982
VL - 17
SP - 203
EP - 216
JO - International Journal of Arabic-English Studies
JF - International Journal of Arabic-English Studies
ER -