Towards a representation model of Arabs and Muslims: USA TV series as an amplifier of the cultural hegemonic speech (case study: Homeland)

Abstract

During the last few decades, the production of TV series has experienced a boom, reaching a wider audience and achieving international success. At the same time, these shows absorb social realities and project them, feeding back to the society that creates them. In western society, especially in the United States, Arabs’ and Muslims’ characters are based on social stereotypes, contributing to their expansion of stereotypes and reflecting a totally distorted reality. Hollywood has relied on this almost from its beginning, portraying Arabs and Muslims as others, strange and dangerous beings. This representation has evolved depending on the social, political and economic conflicts of each decade.This article focuses on the significance of post-9/11 TV series as a propaganda tool, particularly in relation to cultural domination and identity conflict, using textual and content and narrative analysis to study the representation of Arabs’ and Muslims’ characters in Homeland. For this purpose, exhaustive analysis templates have been designed to assist the in-depth analysis of the characters at different levels.Since the on-screen image of these characters has been changing in recent years, the research aims to highlight a new way of configuration of Arab and Muslim characters, which transcends old representations and consolidates a new model, involving a new perspective of cultural and ideological production against Arab and Muslim identities. In this sense, the exhaustive analysis of Homeland points out that by using narrative instruments to camouflage classic discriminatory stereotypes, the show has become an epitome of ideological and propagandistic projection. Accordingly, Homeland does not propose a resignification of the stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims, despite the time that has elapsed, manifesting in a lack of cultural reconciliation which continues today.