Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'

This article, throughout Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan' (2013), examines the socio-cultural characteristics and conditions that determine the identity construction of Arab women in both the diaspora and the homeland. In other words, it demonstrates how Arab women’s identity oscillates...

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Autor principal:	Ishak Berrebbah
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN PT
Publicado:	Ubiquity Press 2021
Materias:	laila halaby identity arab women cultural traditions conservatism judgementalism social anxiety Language and Literature P
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6ee19113de694bc28ad88c0bfec8d9b1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6ee19113de694bc28ad88c0bfec8d9b12021-11-08T08:05:00ZWomen in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'2184-600610.5334/as.58https://doaj.org/article/6ee19113de694bc28ad88c0bfec8d9b12021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.revista-anglo-saxonica.org/articles/58https://doaj.org/toc/2184-6006This article, throughout Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan' (2013), examines the socio-cultural characteristics and conditions that determine the identity construction of Arab women in both the diaspora and the homeland. In other words, it demonstrates how Arab women’s identity oscillates between their country of residence – diaspora – and their countries of origin, showcasing the complexity of their belonging. I argue that socio-cultural traditional mechanisms such as conservatism and judgementalism contribute to the positioning of women in the Arab context in a complex cultural insularity and spaces of anxiety, providing multiple readings of Arab female bodies. This article concludes that Halaby’s portrayal of Arab women’s experiences in her fiction tends to trigger feminist and empathetic engagements. In addition to critical and analytical approaches to the novel, the arguments in this article are based on perspectives of prominent critics and scholars such as Fadda-Carol Conrey, Nadine Naber, and Homi Bhabha, to name just a few, as well as on interviews I conducted with prominent Arab American novelists, namely Rajia Hassib and Laila Halaby.Ishak BerrebbahUbiquity Pressarticlelaila halabyidentityarab womencultural traditionsconservatismjudgementalismsocial anxietyLanguage and LiteraturePENPTAnglo Saxonica, Vol 19, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN PT
topic	laila halaby identity arab women cultural traditions conservatism judgementalism social anxiety Language and Literature P
spellingShingle	laila halaby identity arab women cultural traditions conservatism judgementalism social anxiety Language and Literature P Ishak Berrebbah Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
description	This article, throughout Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan' (2013), examines the socio-cultural characteristics and conditions that determine the identity construction of Arab women in both the diaspora and the homeland. In other words, it demonstrates how Arab women’s identity oscillates between their country of residence – diaspora – and their countries of origin, showcasing the complexity of their belonging. I argue that socio-cultural traditional mechanisms such as conservatism and judgementalism contribute to the positioning of women in the Arab context in a complex cultural insularity and spaces of anxiety, providing multiple readings of Arab female bodies. This article concludes that Halaby’s portrayal of Arab women’s experiences in her fiction tends to trigger feminist and empathetic engagements. In addition to critical and analytical approaches to the novel, the arguments in this article are based on perspectives of prominent critics and scholars such as Fadda-Carol Conrey, Nadine Naber, and Homi Bhabha, to name just a few, as well as on interviews I conducted with prominent Arab American novelists, namely Rajia Hassib and Laila Halaby.
format	article
author	Ishak Berrebbah
author_facet	Ishak Berrebbah
author_sort	Ishak Berrebbah
title	Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
title_short	Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
title_full	Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
title_fullStr	Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
title_full_unstemmed	Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'
title_sort	women in cultural insularity and anxious spaces in the arab and arab american contexts in laila halaby’s 'west of the jordan'
publisher	Ubiquity Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6ee19113de694bc28ad88c0bfec8d9b1
work_keys_str_mv	AT ishakberrebbah womeninculturalinsularityandanxiousspacesinthearabandarabamericancontextsinlailahalabyswestofthejordan
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Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s 'West of the Jordan'

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