Disgraced

Rustam Asrorov 2023102002
Disgraced
by Ayad Akhtar
by Ayad Akhtar
Brief overview of the play
Introduction and its significance
• revolves around Amir Kapoor, a successful Pakistani-

American lawyer, and his wife, Emily, an artist
• the story unfolds during a dinner party
About author
Ayad Akhtar
• an American playwright,
novelist, and screenwriter of
Pakistani heritage
•atheist with Muslim
background
Other works:
•"TheWho & The What"
•"The Invisible Hand"
•"Junk: The Golden Age of Debt“
•"American Dervish"
Premiered and staged
January 2012
Chicago's American Spring 2012
Theatre Company London’s Bush Theatre
in 2012
New York's Lincoln
Center
Awards
• Obie Award
• The Pulitzer Prize
• Nominee to Tony Award for Best Play

Setting
Characters: relationships and conflicts
• a Pakistani-American lawyer
• married to Emily, a white artist
•
Amir Kapoor/Abdullah
Emily Hughes Kapoor
o Amir's wife, an artist who finds

inspiration in Islamic art
o
• Jory is an African-
• Emily and Amir’s antagonist
American lawyer
• Jewish and married to Jory
• an art curator who’s working with Emily • a colleague of Amir
• the husband of Amir’s work colleague Jory. • married to Isaac
Isaac Jory
Plot summary Scene 1
 Emily is portraying him in the

image of a Diego Velázquez
painting of his former slave
 Abe now wants Amir to
assist Imam Fareed, a Muslim
cleric
 a newspaper story quotes Scene 2
Amir as a lawyer supporting
Imam Fareed
 Isaac, an art curator,
arrives to look at Emily's
paintings
 Isaac and his wife Jory (Amir's Scene 3
coworker) arrive early for a dinner
party
 Amir finds out Emily and Isaac’s
affair and Jory’s promotion
Scene 4
Amir has lost both his job and

his marriage six months later
 Amir begs Emily to stay but
she leaves
 He finds his portrait and
stared at it
Themes
Racism
 unconscious racism
So, there you are, in your six-
hundred-dollar Charvet shirt, like
Velázquez’s brilliant apprentice-
slave in his lace collar, adorned in
the splendours of the world
you’re now so clearly a part of...
And yet..
(Scene 3, p. 46)
Themes
Islamophobia
 institutional hostility
 enormous prejudice
Issac: I know what it means. Look the

problem is not Islam . it is Islamo-fascism.
Themes
Shame and
disgrace
The expression on that face?

Shame. Anger. Pride. Yeah. The
pride he was talking about. The
slave finally has the master’s wife.
Symbolism
Velázquez's Moor
 represents the tendency of
Westerners to regard Eastern
cultures patronisingly or
exploitatively
 The resemblance between
the two paintings indicates
her perception of Amir (and,
by extension, his Muslim
culture) as being different
from her own white American
culture, just as Velázquez's
former slave was an alien to
European culture.
“The work broadly asks whether Americans – or, by Critical
extension, members of other western societies – must
renounce their “other” cultural identities to gain
Reception
mainstream acceptance. Its concerns are as specific to
Australia as they are to the US, as attacks from Pakistan to
Paris to Brussels make locally born Muslims the target of
suspicion, and reduce debate to simplistic binaries:
patriotism versus tribalism.”
Steve Dow, a Sydney-based arts and culture writer.
“I’ve been trying to moderate my immediate reaction to Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced:

that it’s a nasty, mean-spirited, dangerous and anti-Muslim piece of work, and I have
no idea why a Pulitzer committee would have awarded it the 2013 prize for drama.
But I can’t. The play falls into the general...”
Juliet Wittman, an investigative reporter and critic with a passion for theater, literature, social
justice and food. Westword
Impact
challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about Muslims and

other minority groups
 raises awareness about Islamophobia and the challenges faced by
individuals trying to navigate their cultural identity in the context of
contemporary America
 prompts reflection on the concept of assimilation and the personal
costs of denying one's cultural heritage
 contributes to a greater awareness of cultural sensitivity
Conclusion
Akhtar’s work covers various themes including the human
condition, love, responsibility, relationships the American-Muslim
experience, immigration, aspects of culture, hybridity, identity crisis,
and inferiority complex.
But actually I believe that the colonization of the mind is the most
effective way upon Muslims in the west who accept it, partly because
the colonizer planted deep in the mind of the colonized that they are
inferior to them. Therefore many Muslims denied their heritage to get
accepted. As with other colonized people, Muslims were victims of the
colonial process in almost every sense.
Discussion questions
What does the author want to say by the scene
where Amir hits his wife?
What was your first impression about Islam after

reading the play?
Thank you

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Rustam Asrorov 2023102002

• revolves around Amir Kapoor, a successful Pakistani-

• The Pulitzer Prize

• Nominee to Tony Award for Best Play

o Amir's wife, an artist who finds

 Emily is portraying him in the

Amir has lost both his job and

Issac: I know what it means. Look the

The expression on that face?

Steve Dow, a Sydney-based arts and culture writer.

“I’ve been trying to moderate my immediate reaction to Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced:

challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about Muslims and

What was your first impression about Islam after

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