Exacerbation of Panic Onstage: Ethnic Problems and Human Rights Violations in Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat (2006)

Abstract

This article discusses the oppressive attitudes, ethnic problems, human rights violations, and onstage panic in Back of the Throat, a play by one of the most celebrated contemporary Arab-American dramatists, Yussef El Guindi. The study emphasizes El Guindi's exposition of the official American reaction against Arabs and Arab-Americans particularly after the devastating September 11 episodes. In the outset, the study provides a rapid survey of the history and origins of Arab-Americans as an ethnicity and traces their literary and dramatic production which has been mostly neglected. Further scrutiny of specific scenes from the play aims at highlighting the critical and horrible practices of power and authority which accumulate painful feelings inside Arab-Americans and pose a threat to human rights and liberties within borders of the United States.

Key words: Arab; Muslim; Middle Eastern; Arab-American Literature; Yussef El Guindi; Back of the Throat; September 11; Ethnicity; Panic; Human Rights Violations; Terrorist Attacks