A Critique of Etaf Rum's A Woman Is No Man

Abstract

Literature of diaspora has lately been widely acknowledged since the disporic generation embraces Homi Baba's belief that "nations are narrations". For them, displacement combines the notions of de- and re-inhabitation that are often regarded as related yet distinguishable processes of memory and identity formation. Not surprisingly, the displacement experience has given rise to their consciousness of the importance of constructing a counter-narrative. Most of the displaced resort to writing about their experience of migration or about the hardships they face in their new destination, especially in challenging the stereotypical image that has been "consciously" formed in the West. Arab- American diasporic women, in particular, have given rise to their voices in an attempt to overdue the injustice caused by the Western gaze to their cases. Literature has been their arena to call for presenting themselves and their own narratives to overdue the injustice caused by both the patriarchal and the Western discourse. Etaf Rum, an Arab- American writer, wrote a novel in 2019 depicting the lives of three generations of a daisporic family. She zoomed in the lives of the female characters while she was representing her own experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Etaf Rum, in her 2019 – novel A Woman is No Man, corrected or reinforced the stereotypical image of Arab women constructed in the Western minds.