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Counter-Narratives And Jonas Hassen Khemiri’S Play Invasion!: Storytelling That Fractures The Orientalist Narrative, Anna Christina Bahow

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the counter-narratives Jonas Hassen Khemiri constructs to challenge Orientalism in his play INVASION! Khemiri’s use of oppositional narratives and disidentification challenges the narrow confines of Middle Eastern/Arab stereotypes by using story and performance to decenter the White Western lens. By examining the context of Swedishness from which Khemiri’s work grows, the construct of the Orientalized Other, and the play itself, this thesis demonstrates how Khemiri disrupts systemic racism and creates a stage, both literally and figuratively, to address race and national identity in Sweden and, by implication, in the United States. I show how the storytelling in …