On The Aporia Of Identity In Ayad Akhtar's Play Disgraced

Contemporary Pakistani American novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for his first stage play,Disgraced.This play vividly depicts the aporia provoked by cultural identity in post-9/11 America.As a Pakistani immigrant,Amir suffers discrimination from every aspect of society.As a Caucasian,Emily cannot stride over the thinking pattern called Orientalism.They become the Other in society and stand on the verge of hysteria.In Disgraced,Akhtar queries Islamophobia in America and explores identity in the post-9/11 context.Based on identity theory,this thesis discusses the formation of the identity aporia that Amir and Emily are confronted with,and their attempts to walk out of this aporia.The first chapter discusses Amir and Emily's identity as the Other.Under the discourse of Europe,Islam becomes the repressed presence.Because of the Islamic presence in identity,Amir becomes the inferior and the enemy in America,suffering exclusion from the government,media,and public.The principle of justice triggers Emily's resistance to the European presence and her identification with the Islam.However,becoming the intellectual brings Emily to the opposite of the mass.The second chapter studies the self-identity that Amir and Emily gradually lost.Amir represses the Islamic presence,representing himselfas a Westerner,but he cannot help identifying with Muslims and finally lost in the positioning of self.Emily resists the speaking of Europe and stands with the Muslim,but the European presence is part of her.The Orientalism behind her representation of Muslims also disorients Emily.The third chapter examines the identity aporia as the beginning of rearticulating.Postmodern identity should not be considered as an essentialist concept,but an articulation,a process never ends.Via mimicry of westerners,Amir seeks to rearticulate the Muslim identity.This mimicry shakes the authority of the West effectively.Meanwhile,Emily's representation of Muslims is not futile,which rearticulates Westerners' identity as the oppressor.Their attempts to rearticulate their identity foreshadow the possibility of walking out of the identity aporia.Disgraced reflects Akhtar's sensitive perception of social reality and humanity.The conflicts between Europe and Islam bring suffering and torture to both Westerners and Muslims.Through revealing this fact,Akhtar appeals to the public for a reconsideration of cultural identity and the ethnic relationship between Muslims and westerners.