Depraved Eastern monsters embody the West’s fear of and fascination with alterity

Evidence

This scene communicates several ideas about the Orient and its monsters. The first is that for the Muslim, the taking of life is an enjoyable act. As Dani Cavallaro argues, “The idea of the child as disposable Other meant to feed the insatiable desire of a tyrannical adult goes hand in hand with the notion of the East as the West’s Other: a depraved, irrational, sultry incarnation of both the Western fear of and fascination with cultural and geographical alterity.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 515

Categorization

• DEFINE: Cavallaro’s framing gives the analytical definition of the East-as-Other: depraved, irrational, sultry — a compound of fear and fascination.