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Crossing the Borders, Rewriting Hegemonies: Reclaiming Narrative Space in Arab Women's Literature in Diaspora
Abstract
This chapter examines the multiple strategies employed to reclaim narrative space in contemporary Arab women's trans-border narratives in the diaspora. It explores how these dissonant narratives challenge forces that have historically silenced the Oriental Arab feminine, denied her access to signifying systems, and constrained both her individual agency and corporeal autonomy. Focusing on Leila Aboulela's The Translator and Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma, this chapter investigates how cross-border mobility, both literal and metaphorical, dismantles essentialist constructions of gender, identity, and movement. It argues that the female protagonists, by navigating cultural and geographical boundaries, actively resist reductive portrayals and reclaim control over their individual identities and bodies. This study posits that mobility serves as a counter-hegemonic tool, subverting dominant discourses and reshaping subjectivity beyond both Western Orientalist representations and Arab hetero-patriarchal frameworks.
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