Contemporary Arab-American literature : transnational reconfigurations of citizenship and belonging / Carol Fadda-Conrey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fadda-Conrey, Carol, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Arab American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Alienation (Social psychology) in literature.

Homeland in literature.

Arab Americans in literature.

Arabs in literature.

American literature--Arab American authors.

Arab countries--In literature.

Arab countries.

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 243 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2014]

Summary:

The last couple of decades have witnessed a flourishing of Arab-American literature across multiple genres. Yet, increased in the production of this literature is ironically paralleled by a prevalent bias against Arabs and Muslims that portrays their long presence in the United States as a recent and unwelcome phenomenon. Spanning the 1990s to the present, Carol Fadda-Conrey takes in the sweep of literary and cultural texts by Arab-American writers in order to understand the ways in which their depictions of Arab homelands, whether actual or imagined, play a crucxial role in shaping cultural articulations of US citizenship and belonging. By asserting themselves within a US framework while maintaining connections to their homelands, Arab-Americans contest the blanket representations of themselves as dictated by the US nation-slate. Deploying a multidisciplinary framework at the intersection of Middle Eastern studies. US ethnic studies, and diaspora studies, Fadda-Conrey argues for a transnational discourse that overturns the often limiting affiliations embedded in ethnic labels. Tracing the shifts in transnational perspectives, from the founders of Arab-American literature, like Gibran Kahlil Gibran and Armeen Rihani, to modern writers such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Joseph Geha, Randa Jarrar, and Suheir Hammad, Fadda-Conrey finds that contemporary Arab-American writers depict strong yet complex and multi-layered attachments to the US landscape. She explores how the idea of home is performed and negotiated between immigrant parents and subsequent generations, alongside analyses of texts that work toward fostering more nuanced understanding of Arab and Muslim identities in the wake of post-9/11 anti-Aral) sentiments. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Transnational Arab-American Belonging

Reimagining the Ancestral Arab Homeland

To the Arab Homeland and Back: Narratives of Returns and Rearrivals

Translocal Connections between the US and the Arab World

Representing Arabs and Muslims in the US after 9/11: Gender, Religion, and Citizenship

Conclusion: Transnational Solidarity and the Arab Uprisings.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479826926

1479826928

9781479804313

1479804312

OCLC:

867769921

Online:

Cover image