This study investigates the sheikh-hero in desert romance novels that have risen in popularity since 2000, within the context of the war on terror and how contemporary imperialism functions,
arguing that the identifications, disavowals, and rejections of the sheikh-hero reflect cultural associations with the war on terror. It contends that contemporary US imperialism adapts the
structure of a love story by cultivating the desire for security and stability common in romances and the subjugation to imperialist power. It discusses the strategies romance authors use to
distance the sheikh-hero from the figure of the terrorist; the concept of freedom and how it operates in imperialism, and how desert romances apply the concept through fantasies of feminist
liberation focused on saving the other; how race and the racialization of Arabs and Muslims after 9/11 appear as exoticism in these novels; and the dichotomies and desire for wholeness in these
novels through the joining of man and woman. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
