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Embodying In-Betweeness: Investigations of Space in Arab-American Cultural Production
Abstract
This paper seeks to analyze the space(s) currently occupied by Arab-American literary studies within the spheres of the US ethnic canon on the one hand and Middle East Studies on the other, arguing for a more fluid and transnational approach to the discursive, imaginative, and academic constructions of such a space. Drawing on theoretical texts by Ella Shohat and Lisa Suheir Majaj, this paper lays out the framework for such transnational confluences by investigating the intersections of area studies, ethnic studies, and diaspora studies as they exist within the field of Arab-American studies. Such intersectionality is crucial in outlining a viable space for Arab-American cultural production within the US ethnic canon as well as in formulating its ties to the Arabic literary tradition. The purpose of this paper, then, is not to reify the constructed ideological boundaries separating the US and Middle Eastern spheres, but my approach emphasizes instead the transnational and transcultural fluidity engendered by such cultural production. To emphasize this cross-cultural fluidity, this paper discusses a selection of Arab-American literary and visual texts including, for instance, the work of the Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal, whose recent book Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun (2008) depicts Bilal’s life in Iraq under Saddam’s regime while chronicling his 2007 month-long art installation titled “Domestic Tension.” In this artistic piece, Bilal connects his computer to a paintball gun in a Chicago gallery and gives worldwide viewers access to that gun via the internet, placing himself directly in front of his virtual shooters. Such “interactive art,” I argue, contributes to more complex and fluid connections between Arab and Arab-American literary, artistic, and cultural articulations. Other works discussed in this paper that add an important dimension to such discursive in-betweenness include Randa Jarrar’s novel A Map of Home (2008) as well as the movie Salt of this Sea (Milh Hatha El Bahr, 2008), directed by Annemarie Jacir, both of which engage in transcending geographical and cultural boundaries in important ways.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
North America
Sub Area
Ethnic American Studies