Home and Belonging in Contemporary Arab American Women’s Literature Before and After 9/11

Abstract

Using an intersectional, feminist, and postcolonial lens, this dissertation investigates and analyzes literary representations of the search for home and belonging in contemporary Arab American women's fiction (specifically, novels and short stories) since the War of 1967 and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that took place in American on September 11, 2001. The significance of my dissertation is its theoretical examination of the meaning of home and belonging to Arab American women who have been displaced from their homelands after the War of 1967 and experience haunting memories from this experience. This struggle is then further complicated for these women and their descendants following the events of 9/11. This dissertation contends that Arab American women feel insecure and unsafe, and are unable to find a sense of home or belonging in the American public sphere because of their inextricable association with terrorism since 1967, which was then furthered by 9/11. With both events, the hope of the promised land the United States would provide was suddenly shattered by racism and Islamophobia. Due to public racism, domestic ethnic misogyny, and the impact of haunting memories, their identity becomes increasingly intersectional and multiplex. This dissertation aims to fill an academic and historical vacuum by examining how Arab-American women have struggled to find home and belonging in America since 1967 due to the intersectional issues of politics, religion, and sexism. This study also aims to reveal the neglected, distorted, and excluded ethnicity of the Arab-American experience by bringing their stories, struggles, and voices to light. This dissertation argues that Arab and Arab American women have the same rights as others in America – the right to live peacefully, free from persecution.

This dissertation's primary texts include the following novels, short stories, and non-fictional stories that were all originally published in English. These texts include Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2007), Sahar Mustafa's The Beauty of Your Face (2020), Laila Halaby's Once in a Promised Land (2007), Alia Yunis's The Night Counter (2007), and a collection of short stories in Susan Darraj's The Inheritance of Exile (2007). Also, the non-fictional account of the Palestinian American Rima comes in Alia Malek's collection of non-fictional narratives, Patriot Acts: Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice, which was published in 2011.