چکیده:
This article examines Saturday in terms of its ideological orientation. It is argued that Saturday’s essentially pro-war stance can be explained in terms of liberal humanist views which the novel espouses. It is argued that the novel in a sense reflects all the main features of liberal humanism: secularism transformed in the New Atheist militant stance against religion, scientism, pluralism, emphasis on the centrality of man and his liberties and rights, emphasis on the human relations and glorification of art and literature as humanizing achievements. However, considering the post-9/11 context, the writers seek to shed light on the connection between this liberal humanist tendency and neo-orientalism (with Islamophobia as one of its main features). As such, despite the liberal humanist emphasis on avoidance of prejudice and considering all sides of an issue, the novel fails to ask the essential questions about the condition of the contemporary world – the real causes of terrorism – and in effect by justifying an imperialistic war, rather unabashedly, serves power.
خلاصه ماشینی:
After reviewing the tenets of liberal humanism as the core of McEwan’s thinking and the contradictions within it, the authors explore how this perspective and worldview are represented in the novel in light of the September 11th attacks, the invasion of Iraq, neo-Orientalist concepts, and what is referred to in the West as Islamic terrorism.
The authors argue that this novel, as one of the cultural products of “New Atheism” – one of the latest and most extreme manifestations of humanism in the West – reflects all aspects of humanist and liberal thought (anti-religiousness, scientism and rationalism, emphasis on the centrality of human beings and their freedoms and rights, emphasis on the importance of art and literature, and emphasis on human relationships).
This paper aims to examine the perspective and worldview of liberal humanism as the core of the author’s thinking in the novel *Saturday* and the contradictions within it in light of the September 11th attacks, the invasion of Iraq, neo-Orientalist concepts, and what is referred to in the West as Islamic terrorism.
As Bradley and Tate rightly point out, in McEwan’s view, the ideological struggle between religion and literature has turned into a conflict between the civilizations of East and West; although he claims that the novel embodies democracy and supports freedom of thought, expression, and speech, *Saturday* is in fact a manifestation of a disturbing “political-aesthetic dogmatism” about science, reason, religion, and, in many cases, about Islam (12).
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