The Clash of Articulations: Aesthetic Shock, Multivalent Narratives and Islam in the Post-9/11 Era

Doctoral thesis (AHRC-funded), Centre for Translation & Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, 2017

This study applies a unique narrative theory/Deleuzian theoretical framework to a multi-genre data set of 13 post-9/11 popular culture videos, produced by performative artists from across global society using digital media aesthetics to defy hegemonic narratives relating to Islam & the War on Terror.

The languages represented in the 13 videos are English, French, Spanish and Arabic; while the performative genres are hip-hop, comedy, punk and parkour. For analysis the texts are grouped thematically into the following categories: 9/11, War on Terror, Clash of Civilisations, and Palestine.

I argue that the videos represent a groundswell of digitised creative resistance to ‘post-9/11 narrative hegemony’ that is symptomatic of an epistemological paradigm shift most aptly represented by the Deleuzian rhizome model of thought.

(See my academia.edu profile)