Foreign Policy and its Impact on Arab Stereotypes in English Popular Fiction of the 1970s and 1980s

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the image of the Arab character in English popular fiction became more distorted. The Arab was shown mainly as a bloodthirsty terrorist, and further political factors contributed to the deterioration of the image such as the 1967 Arab –Israeli conflict. After the 1973 Arab oil boycott, the image of the Arab worsened because some Arab countries threatened the West and its interests in the region. Hence, the image of a wealthy Arab womanizer, who was stupid and debauched, appeared. He then would be generally transformed into a Muslim fanatic determined to destroy the Western dominance in his country. The culmination of distortion reached near its peak during the 1970s and 1980s because many writers of popular fiction used old stereotypes combined with new ones. Reeva Simon and Janice J. Terry specialized in Arab stereotypes emphasize in their works the effect of biased Middle East news coverage on the perception of popular fiction writers. This study basically agrees with this idea as popular fiction writers generally draw their plots and characters from what they read and see in the news rather than directly witnessing the events. According to research, the mainstream media is largely dependent on the government for news in times of crises and issues related to national interest, so such media becomes a reflection of what is stressed in foreign policy. As a result, the public and popular fiction writers absorb the news from their trustworthy channels and mostly become influenced in different degrees by what is said. This study argues that there is a clear connection between the distorted Arab image and US and British foreign policy in the Middle East. It discusses how popular fiction writers express the anxieties and aspirations of their cultures and subsequently their governments, suggesting a pattern of thought that views the Middle East as part of an Anglo-American Empire or as a continuously destabilized region that has to be contained and controlled by Western powers. Any destabilizing factors like militant Islamic groups or Arab national movements in the region are presented as a threat, so the characters involved in these movements are vilified. The paper discusses five representative novels that carry the main stereotypes and prejudices found in mainstream popular fiction. They are: Harold Robbins' The Pirate (1974), Paul Erdman's The Crash of ’79 (1976), Maggie Davis' The Sheik (1977), Michael Thomas' Green Monday (1980), and Laurie Devine's Saudi (1985). The study makes several references to other works.

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