Non-Muslim Characters in Contemporary Iraqi Novel Between Religious Identity and the Failure of Cultural Pluralism

This paper explores critically the textual representation of non-Muslim characters, specifically Iraqi Jews and Christians, in selected contemporary Iraqi novels. The paper argues that the post-2003 Iraqi novel re-enacts the social dynamics of Othering the members of non-Muslim minorities in the hegemonic discourse of a predominantly Muslim society like that of Modern Iraq. The persistent identification of Iraqi Jews and Christians, in fiction and by their religious identity rather than their citizenship is symptomatic of the failure of pluralism in Iraqi society. Thus, Jewish and Christian characters figure in the selected novels as silenced voices at the margin of a society on the verge of collapse. Their fictional portrayal, as such, is framed by the socio-cultural ideologies since it plays on these characters’ religious difference to explore the ways into which the modern Iraqi society imagines its Other. This politics of representation is responsible for the fashioning of these characters into stereotypes for the social difference/indifference.