Supervised Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations Supervised by Professor Yousef Abu Amrieh
Representations of the Occident in Contemporary Diasporic Arab Literature
In his dissertation "Representations of the Occident in Contemporary Diasporic Arab Literature", Ahmad Shalabi examines the representations of the Occident in contemporary diasporic Arab literature. The study investigates how the “Arab self” represents the “Western other” in the twentyfirst century by exploring six novels written by contemporary diasporic Arab writers, namely Rawi Hage’s Cockroach (2008), Hala Alyan’s The Arsonists’ City (2021), Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019), Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise (2021), Layla AlAmmar’s Silence is a Sense (2021), and Jamal Mahjoub’s The Fugitives (2021). The examination of these texts illustrates that contemporary diasporic Arab writers have initiated and promoted an “Occidentalist discourse” that foregrounds issues related to the struggles of Arab immigrants/ refugees to integrate into Western societies in the twenty-first century. This discourse, as this study shows, is also meant to deglamorize or further modify some Arab people’s popular image of the Occident to diminish the gap between their expectations about the “West” and reality. In this sense, this study aims to demonstrate that the representations of the Occident in the selected texts do not entail a distortion or idealization of the image of the other.
Fragile Dis/Connections: Representations of Windows and Balconies in Arab Diasporic Novels
In her dissertation "Fragile Dis/Connections: Representations of Windows and Balconies in Arab Diasporic Novels", Huda Rabahi examines how diasporic Arab novelists employ windows and balconies for aesthetic and thematic ends. The study is interdisciplinary, based on the relationship between architecture and literature. Traditionally, writers used the motif of the window and the balcony as a frame to gaze at the beautiful landscape outside or to witness romantic stories. However, Arab writers in diaspora use windows and balconies differently. On the one hand, at times of war, shattered windows and broken balconies mirror the vulnerable state of the events. On the other hand, windows and balconies in diasporic contexts may/may not facilitate immigrants’ communication with the larger community. Henceforth, this research will analyze the use of windows and balconies in both situations. The dissertation will be divided into two chapters, with the first focusing on the representation of windows and balconies at times of war and armed conflict, while the second will focus on how windows and balconies play a key role in shaping immigrants’ daily experiences in diaspora. Thus, the first chapter will discuss in-depth Rawi Hage’s two novels Beirut Hell Fire Society (2018) and De Niro’s Game (2006), Rabih Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman (2012), and Nada Awar Jarrar’s A Good Land (2009). The second chapter will examine Layla AlAmmar’s Silence is a Sense (2021), Rawi Hage’s Cockroach (2008), Alameddine’s I, The Divine (2001), and Nada Awar Jarrar’s Dreams of Water (2006).
The Impact of Information And Communication Technologies on Arab Diasporic Novels: The Changing Perception of Diaspora
In her dissertation "The Impact of Information And Communication Technologies on Arab Diasporic Novels: The Changing Perception of Diaspora", Asmaa Altalafeeh argues that the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into our daily lives has profoundly impacted diasporic communities, blurring the boundaries between home and diaspora. The study explores the thematic and aesthetic significations of ICT references in Arab diasporic novels, highlighting the evolving perception of diaspora in light of technological advancements. Through an analysis of eight novels set in diasporic contexts, the study examines how characters employ ICT tools to maintain connections with their homeland and navigate issues of displacement, exile, and alienation. By exploring the ways in which technology shapes diasporic identity and experience, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the contemporary literary landscape and the complex interplay between technology, culture, and identity. This study fills a gap in prior research by exploring the relationship between diasporic literature and online media and technologies, highlighting the need for continued exploration of how ICT reshapes our understanding of diaspora and its representation in literature. The analysed novels are Omar Robert Hamilton’s The City Always Wins (2017), Zeyn Jokhadar’s The Map of Salt and Stars (2018), Leila Aboulela’s Bird Summons (2019), Hala Alyan’s The Arsonist’s City (2021), Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End of the Telescope (2021), Layla AlAmmar’s Silence is a Sense (2021), Inaam Kachahi’s The Dispersal (2023), and Omar Sayfo Allah’s Spacious Earth (2023).
Weather Conditions, Islamic Identity, And the North-South Divide: A critical Study of Aboulela's Fiction
In her dissertation "Weather Conditions, Islamic Identity, And the North-South Divide: A critical Study of Aboulela's Fiction", Amal Al-Khayyat examines the self-nature relationship in the fiction of diaspora written by Arab British author Leila Aboulela. Using the theory of diaspora as its theoretical framework, the study traces weather conditions in six works originally written in English by Aboulela The works are The Translator (1999), “The Museum” from the collection of short stories Coloured Lights (2001), Minaret (2005), Lyrics Alley (2010), The Kindness of Enemies (2015), and Bird Summons (2019). In three of these works, the study links weather conditions to the formation of the Islamic identity of characters to show how faith shapes the identity of Aboulela’s characters away from their homelands. In the other three works, the study relates weather conditions to the NorthSouth divide through highlighting issues of racism, politics, and journeys. Doing so, the study proves that there is an interconnectedness between the depiction of weather conditions and a number of themes in these works. It concludes that weather conditions are employed by Aboulela to reflect on the inner psyche of some of her diasporic characters in these works and that a close reading of weather conditions in these texts would enhance one’s understanding of the characters in them.
In her dissertation "Poetics, Politics and Covers: Marketing Arab Anglophone Novels in the Context of War", Nour Kilani examines how publishing houses use book covers to market novels by Anglophone writers of Arab descent in the context of war. In particular, a close examination of the covers of Walid Nabhan’s Exodus of the Storks (2022), Susan Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015), Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer (2013), Inaam Kachachi’s The Dispersal (2023), Rawi Hage’s Beirut Hellfire Society (2018), Iman Humydan’s The Weight of Paradise (2016), Khalid Khalifa’s Death is Hard Work (2016) and Layla AlAmmar’s Silence Is a Sense (2021), shows that Oriental exoticism and stereotypes about Arabs are employed to market some of these novels and increase sales. This study also aims to show how the gender of the author is manipulated for marketing purposes. This study also makes use of Wolfgang Iser’s, Hans Robert Jauss’ and Stanley Fish’s Reception Theory, namely Jauss’ concept of the ‘horizon of expectation’ as well as Jakobson’s semiotic translation, to analyze the covers of the novels.
In her dissertation "The Metropolis through Arab Eyes:Representations of London in Arab Diasporic Fiction", Nihad Rahmouni investigates representations of London in Arab diasporic novels in particular. It scrutinizes the effect of London’s different spaces as well as its multicultural character on Arab characters and examines how these spaces are convenient sites that help them discover their true identities. It analyses in depth the following novels; Leila Aboulela’s Minaret (2005), RobinYassin-Kassab’s The Road from Damascus (2008), Nada Jarrar’s
Dreams of Water (2007), Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It (2011), Al-Shaykh’s Only in London (2001), and Ghalya F. T. Al-Said’s Madness of Despair (2021). It argues that in all the novels, the Metropolis greatly influences how Arab characters perceive their identities and project a sense of selfhood. Overall, in all these literary texts, Arab writers highlight how the London space contributed to a great extent, to the characters’ journeys of self-transmutation. Drawing on the works of Henri Lefebvre and Robert Tally, the study explores the different spaces of London as contested sites that give insights into the characters’ inner struggles and ambivalences and examines the ways they perceive their identities and contextualize their experiences. Hence, this study is divided thematically into three main chapters.
The first chapter explores how Leila Aboulela’s Minaret (2005) and Robin Yassin-Kassab’s The Road from Damascus (2008) picture the Metropolis as a multicultural space that helped Arab characters to forge their own political, religious and professional spaces. The second chapter looks at how Jarrar’s Dreams of Water (2007), Dabbagh’s Out of IT (2011), and Al- Shaykh’s Only in London (2001) investigate the London space as a space of cross-cultural encounter between Arabs and non-Arabs and its impact on their identities. The third chapter examines how Jarrar’s Dreams of Water (2007), Yassin-Kassab’s The Road from Damascus (2008), and Al-Said’s Madness of Despair (2021) depict the different public spaces of London as appropriate spaces that helped Arab immigrants to reduce their exilic anxieties.
Theses and Dissertations Supervised by Dr. Eman Mukattash
Voicing the Unvoiced: Magic Realism as a Mode of Resistance in Contemporary Ethnic American Women Writers' Fiction
PhD student Ayah Ahmad defended her dissertation, " Voicing the Unvoiced: Magic Realism as a Mode of Resistance in Contemporary Ethnic American Women Writers' Fiction" in August 2024. Her dissertation explores how magic realism, as a narrative technique, intersects with space, culture, and mini-narratives to challenge and redefine traditional roles and limitations imposed on women of diverse origins in the United States, with special focus on Arab-American women. Through a critical analysis of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, Gloria Naylor's Mama Day, Toni Morrison's Paradise, Susan Abulhawa's The Blue Between Sky and Water, and Alia Yunis's The Night Counter, this dissertation reveals how these authors employ magic realism to empower female characters and subvert dominant societal, cultural, and mini-narrative constructs. The dissertation is organized around three primary themes: the transformation of domestic space, the subversive power of conjuring practices, and the strategic use of mini-narratives. By reconceptualizing domestic spaces as arenas where the magical intersects with the everyday, these authors create a dynamic setting where traditional roles and expectations are questioned and redefined. Conjuring practices, deeply rooted in cultural heritage and spirituality, are portrayed as acts of resistance that enable women to assert control over their lives and circumstances. Additionally, the integration of mini-narratives within the larger storyline allows for a multi-faceted exploration of individual and collective experiences, highlighting the diverse ways in which women navigate and resist oppression. This dissertation contributes to the existing body of scholarship on magic realism by providing a nuanced analysis of how magic realism serves as a powerful tool for empowerment and resistance among women of diverse backgrounds in the United States. Ultimately, this research underscores the potential of magic realism as a narrative technique to challenge dominant discourses and create spaces for marginalized voices to be heard.
Restrictions and Resistance in Homeland and Asylum: A Spatial Feminist Study of Leila Aboulela's Minaret, Susan Abulhawa's Against the Loveless World and Melissa Fleming's A Hope More Powerful Then The Sea
MA student Rahaf Al-Halouh defended her thesis, "Restrictions and Resistance in Homeland and Asylum: A Spatial Feminist Study of Leila Aboulela's Minaret, Susan Abulhawa's Against the Loveless World and Melissa Fleming's A Hope More Powerful Then The Sea", in August 2022. Her thesis examines the spatial restrictions imposed on female refugees in their homelands and in asylum along with the means of resistance they take up by analyzing three literary works, Leila Aboulela's Minaret (2005), Melissa Fleming's A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea (2017), and Susan Abulhawa's Against the Loveless World (2019). By adopting a feminist spatial approach to the three novels in a transcultural and transnational context, the study argues that the three female protagonists as refugees go through three phases. The first phase is represented in the restrictions which are spatially imposed on them in their homeland due to patriarchy. The second phase is represented in the different forms of restrictions the three protagonists face in asylum due to their being female refugees. The third phase is represented in how they react to these restrictions in both places. The study aims at comparing the spatial restrictions in homelands with those in asylum and to assert the three protagonists' agency in insisting on deciding their own fate by refusing to succumb to these restrictions imposed by patriarchy and other factors in both environments. The study reaches the conclusion that freedom is not necessarily concrete or specific to a particular place. On the contrary, freedom could be symbolic as the three of them find their own spaces of freedom in their ability to resist what is spatially expected of them.
The Mother-Daughter Relationship and the Formation of Identity in Multi-Ethnic Societies: A Psychoanalytic Feminist Reading of Arab-American and African-American Fiction
PhD student Jumana Al-Rifaee is currently working on her dissertation "The Mother-Daughter Relationship and the Formation of Identity in Multi-Ethnic Societies: A Psychoanalytic Feminist Reading of Arab-American and African-American Fiction", giving special focus to the mother-daughter relationship in the Arab-American community. The study offers a psychoanalytic feminist reading of contemporary African American and Arab American fiction with regard to the mother-daughter relationship and its impacts on the female’s identity formation in multi-ethnic societies. It analyses the mother-daughter relationship from psychological and social perspectives using Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), Nancy Chodorow’s The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and Sociology of Gender (1978), and Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976). The study, therefore, highlights the multi-dimensional nature of the relationship between the mother and the daughter, as it reflects several significant cultural and social implications of living in such a multi-ethnic society as the American society. The chosen novels will be analysed to show that while forming their identities in multicultural societies, women (mothers and daughters) face several cultural and social challenges which are reflected through the mother-daughter relationship. Examining this connection through the lenses of Kristeva's theory of abjection, Chodorow's ideas about gender, and Rich's ideas about the institution of motherhood helps us understand the factors that shape women's identities in societies with a lot of different ethnic groups.
The Journey and the Construction of Female Identity: A Study of Space and Gender in the Fiction of Anglo-Arab Writers in Diaspora
PhD student Amanda Al-Azzam is currently working on her dissertation "The Journey and the Construction of Female Identity : A Study of Space and Gender in the Fiction of Anglo-Arab Writers in Diaspora". In her study, she argues that feminist spatiality in diaspora literature reveals how journeying through physical, metaphysical, emotional, and cultural spaces challenges static concepts of space, belonging, and identity. Through an analysis of six works by diasporic writers—The Blue Between Sky and Water, A Map of Home, My Name is Salma, Minaret, Where the Streets Have No Name, and Somewhere, Home—it demonstrates how female protagonists navigate displacement and exile to redefine their relationships with home and identity. The study contends that fluid spaces, whether shaped by borders, memory, or physical transformation, enable the creation of adaptable identities that resist rigid cultural boundaries. Together, these novels critique static notions of home and identity and offer a feminist perspective on how diasporic women reimagine belonging through the dynamic possibilities of fluid and transformative spaces.
Thematic Influence and The Power of 'The Female Pen': A Comparative Study of Toni Morrison's and Susan Abulhawa's Fiction
In her dissertation "Thematic Influence and The Power of 'The Female Pen': A Comparative Study of Toni Morrison's and Susan Abulhawa's Fiction", Hadjer Khatir explores the thematic influence and artistic creativity in the fiction of two contemporary ethnic American female writers: the African American Toni Morrison (1931-2019) and the Palestinian American Susan Abulhawa (1960- ). The study scrutinizes the thematic structure of a number of their selected novels in light of Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s theory “the Anxiety of Authorship” in order to trace a new running thread of matrilineal influence and continuity between the two authors’ writings. It traces the connection between Morrison’s and Abulhawa’s treatments of “high themes” and seeks to study these themes both on realistic and metaphorical levels in relation to Gilbert and Gubar’s metaphors of “the womb”, “the cave”, “the looking glass”, “the crystal surface” and “the tarantella dance”. On this basis, the first chapter discusses the theme of sexual harassment in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), Beloved (1997), and Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015) respectively, the second chapter discusses the theme of displacement and exile in Morrison’s Sula (1973), Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky And Water (2015), and Against the Loveless World (2020), and the third chapter discusses the theme of mother-daughter relationships by analyzing Morrison’s Beloved (1997), A Mercy (2008), and Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin (2010). The study ascertains that though Morrison and Abulhawa are exceptionally burdened with a “trifecta jeopardy”, they have managed through their “female pen” to challenge the hierarchical literary tradition of their forefathers and to establish a literary matriarchal tradition that is inclusive of ethnic diversity. It concludes that contemporary female writers of different ethnic backgrounds can be brought together as founders of a literary tradition of mutual influence and continuity.
The Artist's Journey Across Borders: Towards a Poetics of Arab Diasporic künstlerroman
In her dissertation "The Artist's Journey Across Borders: Towards a Poetics of Arab Diasporic künstlerroman", Meriem Zaarour explores the traditional western künstlerroman from an Arab diasporic viewpoint. The study aims to illuminate the formative process the Arab diasporic artist undergoes as manifested in five Arab diasporic novels: A Map of Home (2008) by Randa Jarrar, The Corpse Washer (2013) by Sinan Antoon, Rabih Alameddine’s The Angel of History (2016), An Unsafe Haven (2016) by Nada Awar Jarrar and Laila Lalami’s the Other Americans (2019). Framed in the long tradition of Bildungsroman studies, more specifically the künstlerroman, the selected novels illuminate the early years of the characters’ formative process, the struggles they face as adults, the weight art holds in their lives and the subsequent transformation they undergo as artists. The study draws on the novels’ socio-political contexts, which include religion, family, and the political conditions in the protagonists’ home countries. Since Arab diasporic writers relocate the genre into an Arab transnational setting, this study draws attention to the social, religious, and political restrictions Arab artists face which do not usually feature in the traditional genre plot. It as well refers to the repercussions of displacement, whether voluntary and forced, and the inability (in some cases) to move away from the war ridden Arab areas on the lives and futures of the Arab artists. Based on this, the study proposes that the selected novels provide new insights into the intricacies of the formation process of diasporic Arab artists in transcultural environments. Anglophone Arab writers create artist figures whose artistic dreams are intertwined with their realities and this turns the Arab künstlerroman into a platform for a productive and intersectional dialogue between diasporic subjectivity and the making of an artist.
Identity and Resistance in War-Torn Palestine: An Ecocritical Approach to Diasporic Fiction
Phd student Shaimaa Al-Namroutu is currently working on her dissertation, "Identity and Resistance in War-Torn Palestine: An Ecocritical Approach to Arab Diasporic Fiction". The study presents a postcolonial ecocritical analysis of Arab diasporic fiction set in war-torn Palestine, focusing on the works of Susan Abulhawa, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Hala Alyan, Selma Dabbagh, and Randa Jarrar. It examines the relationship between the colonizer (Israelis/British), the colonized (Palestinians), and the environment, emphasizing how natural elements—such as animals, plants, and water—reflect the protagonists’ identities and struggles. The study explores how these authors use nature metaphorically and metonymically to illustrate Palestinian resistance against oppression, depicting their characters’ resilience in the face of violence, displacement, and conflict. Through an ecocritical lens, the analysis reveals the significance of the natural world in shaping the protagonists' identities and the decolonization of their narratives. By addressing environmental injustice alongside cultural oppression, this study highlights the intertwined effects of colonialism on both the land and its people, offering a fresh perspective on Arab diasporic literature and its engagement with ecological and political struggles.