Receptions and Constructions of Muslimness in American Popular Culture: A Two-Part Comparison of Dune in the 1960s and 2020s
Summary
Recent years have witnessed an increase in both popular and scholarly interest in Frank Herbert’s (1920—1986) science fiction classic Dune (1965), surrounding the two-part release of Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster adaptation (2021, 2024). Recurrent themes within such discourses in contemporary times have been Herbert’s abundant references to Islamic history and religion in his original work, and the rendition of these elements in Villeneuve’s take on the story. The present thesis seeks both to analyze this discourse and contribute to it by approaching the so-called “Muslimness” of Dune historically as a product of audience reception. It attempts to do so through a two-part comparison between the reception of Dune in its earliest edition and in our contemporary context. The first part of this diptych explores Dune within Analog, the sf magazine in which it was first published, and theorizes on the possibilities for a reception of Dune’s “Muslimness” within this context. The latter returns to our contemporary context and approaches Villeneuve’s Dune as a distinctly 21st-century Hollywood phenomenon, connecting it to a tradition of portraying Muslims in American popular cinema. Striving thus for a “fusion of horizons” between past and present, this paper hopes to inspire further reflection on representations of Otherness in American popular culture, the power of image-making, and the commodification of resistance.