Cultural intersection’s a study of diasporic Arab women’s writing
Author(s): Safeer Irshad Batt and Dr. Nupur Sharma
Abstract: Arab-British novelists‟ protagonists identified themselves as exiles longing to return to the homelands where they are born. While Arab-Americans are born and brought up in America identify themselves as U.S. citizens and insist on equal access. As transnationals negotiating the „pull and push‟ between homeland and hostland home becomes a „mythic place of desire‟ where they in spirit cannot return though it is possible to visit the geographical territory physically and experience the sense of belonging, home and community. Salma longs to return to her native village, Hima to know the whereabouts of her daughter Layla who constantly haunts her mind in England. Initially due to the fear of honour-killing she is unable to go but in spite the objections of her husband she goes back to Jordan. Sammar too misses her homeland in Scotland and when Rae denies her proposal she leaves Scotland and goes back to Sudan. Najwa also wants to go back to her homeland but it is not possible for her as her family had become the victim of a coup and her father was found guilty and executed. Salma, Sammar Najwa all long to return to the homeland for various reasons but home remains a „mythic place of desire‟ for Jemorah, Sirine, Soraya and Salwa because of their double-consciousness makes them fascinate about the land of their origin while enjoying a comfortable life abroad but one marred by racial discrimination and the feeling of being at odds with mainstream America.Arab-American women writers show the way in which a temporal movement from exile to ethnic, from migrant to American has been implicitly disrupted at every juncture. Both the descendants of earlier generations and newer immigrants negotiate and renegotiate their relationship to “Arab spaces of origin” and “American spaces of adoption or birth”. Arab-American writers have claimed a ground space that continued to unsettle assumptions about what it means to be an Arab or an American, or an Arab-American.
Safeer Irshad Batt, Dr. Nupur Sharma. Cultural intersection’s a study of diasporic Arab women’s writing. Int J Adv Acad Stud 2020;2(4):352-360. DOI: 10.33545/27068919.2020.v2.i4f.425
Research Journals