Abstract
In the wake of multiculturalism, the canon began to make room for the literary production of several groups of immigrants. Arab-American writers, however, remained marginal. Based on the notion of diaspora and its implications, this paper intends to investigate the literary production by Arab immigrants and their descendants in the United States with a view to discussing, in particular, the representation of gender. Through a brief discussion of a few contemporary works, we intend to show that Arab-American writers operate a kind of de-essentialization, that is, their works offer gender representations that virtually oppose disseminated stereotypes of Arab peoples. It is our contention that the figure of Scheherazade is revised so as to create alternatives for characters who wish to claim new roles for themselves without giving up their diasporic belonging.
Highlights
In the wake of multiculturalism, the canon began to make room for the literary production of several groups of immigrants
Arab Americans are not the object of Middle East Studies, which focus on the Middle East itself and not the diaspora that originated in that area
The term Arab American should refer to Arab descendants throughout the Americas, from north to south, but it is commonly employed to refer to Arabs in the United States only, as a natural consequence of the term American being widely employed in the English language to refer to that particular country only
Summary
In the wake of multiculturalism, the canon began to make room for the literary production of several groups of immigrants. Women characters in works by Arab-American writers do bond under a strategic homogeneity, only to undermine impositions and constraints of the old world and of their diasporic community.
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