Abstract

Since the tragic events of 9/11, the discourse of terrorism has become a prominent theme in American Literature. Don DeLillo, “the master of the terrorist’s imagination” as the New York Magazine puts it, has been obsessed with the theme of terrorism before and after the 9/11 attacks. In Falling Man, DeLillo confronts the violent reality of the attacks as part of the cultural process of representing and interpreting them. Adopting an Orientalist perspective, DeLillo fictionalizes the 9/11 attacks concentrating on the subject of terrorism which is attached to Islam and Muslims. He dares to imagine what might be going on within the inner circle of a group of Muslim terrorists known as the Hamburg cell who will later carry out the attacks of 9/11. DeLillo’s contribution lies in articulating the experience of the terrorist through Hammad, the fictive member of that group whose thoughts are rendered free indirect style. The present article examines how DeLillo conceptualizes terrorism through the representation of the character of Hammad to strengthen the typical Orientalist image of Islam as a faith that is based upon violence and struggle and Muslims as fanatic terrorists. This affirms the Orientalist thesis of the incompatibility between the Islamic East and Modern West.