Vultures over Bagdad : An analysis of the tales of what happened to the Iraqi cultural heritage.

This master thesis deals with the looting and destruction of the Iraqi cultural heritage in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in April 2003. My ambition is to analyse the narratives conveyed by journalists and intellectuals to see which truths that were established. Using discourse analysis methods, my aim is not to find an objective truth in the matter at hand, but rather to se which truths the writers put into view regarding the question of liability and the seriousness of the looting and destruction. This paper further discusses these truths from the perspectives of imperialism and of Edward Saids thoughts about Orientalism. It also takes a critical look at the tendencies of the writers to see whether the narratives display testimony of these assumed tendencies. The analysis finds truths that mostly blame the US forces and leaders for the destruction and looting. Some narratives claim that the US government failed to protect the cultural heritage due to indifference and ignorance, while some writers claim that the failure to act was due to US ambitions to undermine the identity of the Iraqi people, and thus impose imperialistic ruling in Iraq. The study also finds that all the writers show more or less explicit tendencies in their articles. Finally I find that some narratives show that orientalism is indeed alive in the minds of some western representatives.Uppsatsnivå: