The Non-National in Contemporary American Literature [electronic resource] : Ethnic Women Writers and Problematic Belongings /
Gomaa, Dalia M.A.author.
This study examines contemporary narratives by Arab-American, South-Asian American, Chicana, and Cuban-American women writers. Gomaa argues that the disparate histories of Arabs, South Asians, Chicanas, and Cubans in the U.S. unfold new non-national sites for affiliations and identifications that unsettle notions of a unified American national space. In each chapter a South-Asian American, Chicana, or Cuban-American text is paired with an Arab-American text to examine sites of ambivalence, which problematize an individual's sense of belonging to an "imagined community." The author proposes a redefinition of imagined communities to imagined transnational communities, which are formed beyond the geographical boundaries of a single nation and are not nation-centered. This study values Arab-American writings as a potential terrain to expand American Studies, and calls attention to Arab-American feminist strategies that contribute to theoretical debates by and about American women writers.
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This study examines contemporary narratives by Arab-American, South-Asian American, Chicana, and Cuban-American women writers. Gomaa argues that the disparate histories of Arabs, South Asians, Chicanas, and Cubans in the U.S. unfold new non-national sites for affiliations and identifications that unsettle notions of a unified American national space. In each chapter a South-Asian American, Chicana, or Cuban-American text is paired with an Arab-American text to examine sites of ambivalence, which problematize an individual's sense of belonging to an "imagined community." The author proposes a redefinition of imagined communities to imagined transnational communities, which are formed beyond the geographical boundaries of a single nation and are not nation-centered. This study values Arab-American writings as a potential terrain to expand American Studies, and calls attention to Arab-American feminist strategies that contribute to theoretical debates by and about American women writers.
Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- 1. The Non-National Subject in The Language of Baklava and An American Brat -- 2. Re-imagining the US National Time in West of the Jordan and The Last Generation -- 3. Moments of (Un)belonging: the Spatial Configuration of Home(land) in The Time between Places: Stories that Weave in and out of Egypt and America and The Namesake -- 4. Transnational Allegories and the Non-national Subject in The Agero Sisters and The Night Counter -- Afterword.
Literature, Modern-20th century.
Sociology.
America-Literatures.
Literature-Philosophy.
Culture-Study and teaching.
Fiction.
Twentieth-Century Literature.
Gender Studies.
North American Literature.
Literary Theory.
Cultural Theory.
Fiction.