Journal | Il Tolomeo
Journal issue | 19 | 2017
Research Article | “Homeland America, bismillah”
“Homeland America, bismillah”
Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf and the Dissonance of Nationhood
- Marta Cariello - Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italia - email
Abstract
Mohja Kahf’s 2006 novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, follows the protagonist, Khadra, in her journey ‘back home’, to the State of Indiana, where she grew up and where she ran away from, in search of herself, her identity, and a less ‘dissonant’ existence first in her native Syria, then in Eastern US. Her personal and intimate search becomes an exploration into the multilayered and intricate articulations of the Islamic faith, of its positionings inside the US, and its negotiations with US nationhood. Kahf’s is a work of fiction that is also a (sometimes quite explicit) dissertation on Islam, the Muslim-American community, issues of inclusion, exclusion, identity, whiteness, and the national narrative of the US vis-à-vis the Ku Klux Klan, 9-11, Orientalism and patriarchy. This article looks at Kahf’s novel in the light of a critical discourse emerging in Arab-American fiction in relation to the boundaries and predicaments of US nationhood. In particular, the analysis will focus on Mohja Kahf’s poetics of dissonance that challenges dominant narratives of American national identity and its exclusionary cultural politics.
Submitted: July 13, 2017 | Accepted: Sept. 15, 2017 | Published Dec. 21, 2017 | Language: en
Keywords Arab-American literature • Nationhood • Feminism • Islam • Diasporic women writers
Copyright © 2017 Marta Cariello. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-19-17-14
Testi creativi | Creative Works | Créations
- Marrakech
- Abdelwahab Meddeb
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Marrakech. Traduzione
- Anna Zoppellari
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Meddeb
Note biographique - Anna Zoppellari
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Story-Telling – Narrazione
- Christine De Luca, Francesca Romana Paci
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Christine De Luca’s Poetics of Gaze and the Power of Intellect
- Edvige Pucciarelli
- Dec. 21, 2017
- DNA
- Lasana M. Sekou
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
DNA, by Lasana M. Sekou (2016)
Traduzione di Federica Messulam (2017) - Federica Messulam
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Introduzione all’opera di Lasana M. Sekou, poeta Caraibico
- Michela A. Calderaro
- Dec. 21, 2017
- The Book of Rules
- Geoffrey Philp
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Introduction to Geoffrey Philp’s Works
- Michela A. Calderaro
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Prospero e Caliban
Il tempo e la Storia - Giulio Marra
- Dec. 21, 2017
Articoli | Articles | Articles
-
Vers une francophonie littéraire en manifestations
Le festival Étonnants Voyageurs et les Rencontres québécoises en Haïti - Michał Obszyński
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Diablesse de femme
De l’ethnographie à la narration, la métamorphose dans le conte folklorique haïtien - Veronica Brunetto
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Une approche au motif urbain dans l’œuvre d’Abdelwahab Meddeb
- Anna Zoppellari
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Un Christophe ignoré des Césairiens
Notes pour des genèses - Jean Jonassaint
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
La chambre de Claire, ou l’espace du « non-Je »
Analyse de Amour de Marie Vieux-Chauvet - Anna Da Rozze
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Le marronnage en tant que moyen de résistance dans le film Nèg Maron
- Stève Puig
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Ahmadou Kourouma et la transposition de la parole malinké
Analyse de la représentation langagière et du projet de légitimation linguistique dans Allah n’est pas obligé - Silvia Boraso
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
The Land of Saints and How to Get Out of It
Irish Diaspora on the Irish stage (1904 to 1939) - Fabio Luppi
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
“Homeland America, bismillah”
Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf and the Dissonance of Nationhood - Marta Cariello
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Shakespeare’s Other Eden
Richard II by Ouroboros Theatre Company (2013) - Loredana Salis
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Amitav Ghosh: Climate Change Here and Now
- Carmen Concilio
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
“Pip is my story”
Cross-Fertilising Narratives in Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip - Caterina Colomba
- Dec. 21, 2017
Interviste | Interviews | Interviews
- Dermot Bolger in Conversation with Irene De Angelis
- Irene De Angelis
- Dec. 21, 2017
- In conversation with Michael Barker-Caven, director of Richard II for Ouroboros Theatre, Ireland, in a co-production with the Abbey Theatre/Everyman Theatre, Cork, April 2013.
- Loredana Salis
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
La francophonie littéraire dans le système universitaire français et sur le marché du livre en France
Entretien avec Romuald Fonkoua, directeur du Centre international d’études francophones à l’Université Paris-Sorbonne et rédacteur en chef de la revue Présence africaine - Michał Obszyński
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
De l’hypnose sidérante d’un écran à une démarche sensorielle de vie et de rencontre
Interview à Ritta Baddoura - Francesca Tumia
- Dec. 21, 2017
Recensioni | Reviews | Comptes rendus
-
Schwarz-Bart, André ; Schwarz-Bart, Simone (2017). Adieu Bogota. Paris : Éditions du Seuil, 265 pp.
Suite - et fin ?- du cycle antillais schwarz-bartien - Kathleen Gyssels
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Dalembert, Louis-Philippe (2017).
- Alessia Vignoli
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Magdelaine-Andrianjafitrimo, Valérie (éd.) (2015). Écrivaines de l’Île Maurice et de La Réunion. ‘Tisser des fils épars’. Lecce : Alliance Française, 311 pp. Interculturel Francophonies 28
- Anna Da Rozze
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Brinker, V. (éd.). « Poétique d’Abdourahman A. Waberi. Héritages et singularités » (2016). Num. monogr., Interculturel Francophonies, 29, juin-juillet, 248 pp.
- Anna Michieletto
- Dec. 21, 2017
- « Odeurs, senteurs, parfums ». Ponti/Ponts. Langues, littératures et civilisations des Pays Francophones, 16, 2016, 252 pp.
- Sara Del Rossi
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Mansueto rec. Albertazzi, Costantini, Zoppellari
- Claudia Mansueto
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Fréchet, Claudine (éd.) (2016). La variation du français dans le monde. Quelle place dans l’enseignement ? Limoges : Lambert-Lucas, 129 pp.
- Annick Farina
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Joyce, Finnegans Wake, Libro terzo, Capitoli 1 e 2 / Lettere e saggi
L’ansia della finitudine - Francesca Romana Paci
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Joyce, Finnegans Wake / Pomes Penyeach
- Marco Fazzini
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Bliss, Eliot (2015). Spring Evenings in Sterling Street. Poems. Edited by Michela A. Calderaro. Kindle Edition, 128 pp.
- Eleonora Cecchin
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Vallorani, Nicoletta (ed.) (2016). Introduzione ai Cultural Studies. UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Roma: Carrocci, 209 pp.
- Luigi Carmine Cazzato
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Philp, Geoffrey (2016). Garvey’s Ghost. Kingston: Carlong Publishers Ltd, 254 pp.
- Donna Aza Weir-Soley
- Dec. 21, 2017
- Bromley, R. et al. (eds.) (2016). «CrOCEVIA. ENGAGING WOR(L)DS IN POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES. Human Rights, Environmental Humanities and Well-being». Monogr. no, Ricognizioni, 3(5), 170 pp.
- Diana Osti
- Dec. 21, 2017
-
Maximilien Laroche
Nécrologe - Suzanne Crosta
- Dec. 21, 2017
Bio-bibliographies
- Bio-bibliographies
- Dec. 21, 2017
| DC Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
dc.identifier |
ECF_article_1058 |
|
dc.title |
“Homeland America, bismillah”. Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf and the Dissonance of Nationhood |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Cariello Marta |
|
dc.publisher |
Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing |
|
dc.type |
Research Article |
|
dc.language.iso |
en |
|
dc.identifier.uri |
http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/il-tolomeo/2017/1/homeland-america-bismillah/ |
|
dc.description.abstract |
Mohja Kahf’s 2006 novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, follows the protagonist, Khadra, in her journey ‘back home’, to the State of Indiana, where she grew up and where she ran away from, in search of herself, her identity, and a less ‘dissonant’ existence first in her native Syria, then in Eastern US. Her personal and intimate search becomes an exploration into the multilayered and intricate articulations of the Islamic faith, of its positionings inside the US, and its negotiations with US nationhood. Kahf’s is a work of fiction that is also a (sometimes quite explicit) dissertation on Islam, the Muslim-American community, issues of inclusion, exclusion, identity, whiteness, and the national narrative of the US vis-à-vis the Ku Klux Klan, 9-11, Orientalism and patriarchy. This article looks at Kahf’s novel in the light of a critical discourse emerging in Arab-American fiction in relation to the boundaries and predicaments of US nationhood. In particular, the analysis will focus on Mohja Kahf’s poetics of dissonance that challenges dominant narratives of American national identity and its exclusionary cultural politics. |
|
dc.relation.ispartof |
Il Tolomeo |
|
dc.relation.ispartof |
Vol. 19 | December 2017 |
|
dc.issued |
2017-12-21 |
|
dc.dateAccepted |
2017-09-15 |
|
dc.dateSubmitted |
2017-07-13 |
|
dc.identifier.issn |
|
|
dc.identifier.eissn |
2499-5975 |
|
dc.rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License |
|
dc.rights.uri |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
|
dc.identifier.doi |
10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-19-17-14 |
|
dc.peer-review |
yes |
|
dc.subject |
Arab-American literature |
|
dc.subject |
Arab-American literature |
|
dc.subject |
Diasporic women writers |
|
dc.subject |
Diasporic women writers |
|
dc.subject |
Feminism |
|
dc.subject |
Feminism |
|
dc.subject |
Islam |
|
dc.subject |
Islam |
|
dc.subject |
Nationhood |
|
dc.subject |
Nationhood |
| Download data |
-
file_download 32
-
search 338
-
format_quote 0
