Dispute in the Diaspora: Metaphor and Contradiction in Twenty-First-Century Arab American Family Dramas

Author:

Baki Hala

Abstract

Betty Shamieh’s Roar (2005) and Yussef El Guindi’s Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith (2009) exemplify early twenty-first-century Arab American family dramas that grapple with the intersecting dilemmas of Arab diasporic experience in the United States. Reading the family as a metaphor for the Arab diaspora, I argue that these plays serve as sites of contradiction and negotiation, exploring intra-communal conflicts that stem from differing relationships to homeland, host nation, and community. In this article, I contextualize Shamieh’s and El Guindi’s plays within the long history of Arab Americans navigating US racial frameworks, immigrant sentiment, and systemic bias. I further propose that these family dramas can be read as allegories of a diasporic public, Arab American or otherwise, that imagine ways of responding to the challenges of acculturation and survival in the diaspora.

Publisher

University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)

Subject

Literature and Literary Theory

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3