TECHNO-ORIENTALISM CHALLENGED: STUDYING COUNTER-NARRATIVES IN VIDEO GAMES AND FILMS

Abstract

Orientalism has always faced resistance in different genres like novels, dramas and poetry but this study will highlight how resistance to Techno-Orientalism is shown with counter-narratives. The counter-narratives specifically in the film Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) directed by Mira Nair, and Hizbollah’s video game Al Quwwat Al Khasa (Special Force) will be explored. The selected film and video game have been analyzed in detail. It is also studied how both these
genres challenge the metanarrative of the West, particularly America, and in what ways their approach towards counter-narratives differs. The main method used for the content analysis involves playing the whole video game and watching the complete film while taking notes and screenshots of relevant visual signifiers. Other methods like studying the film and the video game as texts, and their discourse analysis, were also employed. The main significance of this
study is that it highlights that techno-orientalism targeting entire Asian countries but it focuses on Muslims. Muslims are stereotyped in Hollywood films, and American video games, and how those brutal American stereotypical representations of Muslims are challenged by the counternarratives presented in our selected film and video game.