The Turban as Metonymy: Reading Orientalism in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette

Cass, Jeffrey

doi:10.1353/cea.2015.0014

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Inside such spaces, and between them, there are multiple layers of tension and contradictions over what clothes and their design symbolise. During the European colonial era both the veil and turban were linked to the exotic (Bullock 2002;Cass 2015;Kahf 1999;Said 1979;Yeğenoğlu 1998). The exotic has always carried the double connotation of something similar and exciting, but different and foreboding (Bullock 2018).…”

Section: Theoretical Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the 1970s the headgear image of the "TV Arab" shifted from a turban to a headdress that looked "like tablecloths pinched from a restaurant" (Shaheen 1984: 5). Post-9/11, the turban is represented less as exotic and more as a symbol of the evil male Muslim terrorist -Osama bin Laden was always depicted in a turban, witness the use of the turban in the Danish cartoon controversy, which featured the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) with a bomb wrapped in his turban, or the billboards of newly elected Barack Obama in 2009 asking if he was President (head uncovered) or jihad (head turbaned) (Cass 2015)?…”

Section: Cassmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Turbans, Veils, and Villainy on Television: Stargate SG1 and Merlin

Bullock¹

2021

ReOrient

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In this article I investigate why two shows from different television genres in two different countries resort to nearly identical costume choices to convey villainy. I argue that that the directors, writers, and costume designers for the US science fiction show Stargate SG1 and BBC's Merlin use orientalist tropes of the veil as exotic, oppressed or threatening as costumes for their non-Muslim characters because of the centuries-long association in Western culture between Muslim veiling and the Other, while differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable headgear and face coverings. I draw on Said's Orientalism, Hall's Encoding/Decoding, medievalism, and the theory of the ethnonormative viewer to make this case. The “veil” has become an iconic negative sign in the West wholly distinct from meanings given to it by veiled Muslim women themselves. I suggest that anti-veiling ideology in Western publics stems in part from negative connotations given to it in television shows like Stargate SG1 and Merlin.

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Section: Theoretical Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cassmentioning

confidence: 99%