Cultural Impasse in Arab-American Writings: A Reading of Laila Halaby’s Once in a Promised Land and Mohja Kahf’s the Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Abstract

The object of this dissertation is to study Laila Halaby's Once in a Promised Land and Mohja Kahf's The Girl in The Tangerine Scarf. I intend to analyze the diasporic experiences of Arab American women: Khadra Shamy and Salwa Haddad. I will also analyze the characters conditions as Diasporic subjects. My main argument is a comment on how diasporic experiences are varied, a fact that makes Western prejudices and stereotypes invalid, and I also show how these women are able to deal with their sense of displacement, working as mediators between Arab and American cultures. In order to carry on such a project, I will investigate each character's experiences and their different ways of dealing with their diasporic conditions.