Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Identity in and out of Time: Narratives of Temporal Displacement in Contemporary Migrant Fiction(The George Washington University, 2024) Alshammari, Raad; Daiya, KavitaThis dissertation explores the role of time in contemporary migrant fiction, investigating the question of how representations of migrant temporality shape fictional narratives of displacement and deepen our understanding of “the age of migration.” Situated at the intersection of temporal turns in both migration studies and literary studies and informed by theories of postcolonial temporality, the dissertation analyzes six different works of postcolonial migrant fiction by major writers of multi-ethnic American and British multicultural literature. The analyzed texts all emphasize the temporal dimensions of migrant mobility, featuring a consciousness of temporal displacement that operates across both thematic and formal dimensions of the narrative. The dissertation seeks to illuminate how these texts negotiate the intricate relationship between displacement and temporality while articulating migrant experiences and identities in contemporary contexts. It argues that time plays a pivotal role in the literary production of meaning around individual and collective migrant identities, functioning across political, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions. Central to the dissertation’s argument is the idea that migrant movement in these works extends beyond a purely spatial journey. It represents a temporal movement that transgresses and redraws the temporal boundaries of both the self and the world as constructed by cultural, national, and global forms of hegemony. By emphasizing this temporalized understanding of mobility, the dissertation underscores a sense of agency and subjectivity that challenges the framing of migrant experiences within geographical narratives of time. It demonstrates how migrant temporalities enable a “cognitive remapping” of a world that is no longer anchored in fixed ideological teleologies but is instead shaped by the global interconnectedness of economies, cultures, and populations. In this context, the dissertation highlights the importance of recognizing the “in-betweenness” of migrant subjectivity as a form of temporal in-betweenness—one that not only captures the nuances of the migrant experience but also reflects the broader condition of global humanity. Here, the dissertation underlines the role of migrant literature as a distinctive space where the de- spatialized, in-between temporality of the migrant subject becomes tangible and representational.17 0Item Restricted The Shadow of a Cane(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-28) Alzahrani, Razan; Gibbs, JonathanThis dissertation, part of the novel "The Shadow of a Cane," explores Bader's life in a small southern Saudi Arabian town. Centered on family dynamics, it delves into Bader's birth family and the one he creates, depicting their mirrored journeys. The narrative encompasses themes of fathers and sons, lost love, forgiveness, and aging, unfolding over approximately seventy years. This section, situated in the novel's first half, has been condensed to meet the dissertation's length requirement while providing insight into Bader's marriage and the family dynamics in Saudi society.20 0Item Restricted From The Other Side: A Critical Study Of Edward Steiner'S Approach To Twentieth-Century Immigration(Kent State University, 2023-04-20) Alsulobi, Najwa; M’Baye, BabacarThe dissertation focuses on neglected aspects of the history of immigration in the United States during the turn of the twentieth century. Reviving the writings of Edward Steiner, the dissertation also explores the representations of immigration in his fictional works, The Mediator: A Tale of the Old World and the New (1907) and The Broken Wall Stories of the Mingling Folk (1911) as well as his nonfiction book, On the Trail of the Immigrant (1906). In these works, Steiner interweaves his immigration experiences with those of his fellow immigrants. His first novel, The Mediator, shows that both the hybridity of religion and the combined role of ghettoization and other community structures in their hometown and New York’s Lower East Side shaped the experiences of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Relatedly, Steiner’s short story collection, The Broken Wall, challenges assumptions about the turn-of-the-century immigrants’ reactions to assimilation. Exploring what Steiner termed as “mingling,” the second chapter of this dissertation demonstrates that he envisioned the incorporation of immigrants into mainstream America as an individual, selective process tailored to the immigrants’ choices and needs to adapt to their new home country. Examining On the Trail of the Immigrant, the third chapter contextualizes Steiner’s critiques of and experiences with the immigration journey. This chapter reflects on Steiner’s criticisms of the steamship lines’ handling of the third-class travelers (commonly referred to as steerage), the admission process at Ellis Island, and his counterattacks on the Immigration Restriction League. This chapter also shows that Steiner’s views of the turn of twentieth-century immigration lodged East European immigrants’ experiences in the heart of America’s race saga.37 0