Transcultural Identity Formation and the Iranian Diaspora: Writing/Speaking Back in Farnoosh Moshiri’s <i>Against Gravity</i>

Abstract


 
 
 While much has been written on the relation between identity and migration as well as the inconsistent meaning of belonging, little attention has been paid to Iranian migrant women and their influence on the changing meaning of transcultural citizenship. This study focuses on Farnoosh Moshiri’s Against Gravity and analyses Iranian female characters depicted in the novel, Roya in particular, in light of theories of Stuart Hall and Homi Bhabha. This article deals with the fluidity of cultural identity, bilingualism, and the role of narratives as productive and emancipatory forces in helping diasporas change their position from victimisation to consciousness. The character Roya Saraabi spends a few years as a refugee in Afghanistan and India, then goes to Houston in the USA with her daughter Tala. This article discusses the multiplicity of selves and argues that Iranian migrant women’s transcultural hybrid identity, intellectual bilingualism, and diasporic narratives increase their transnational mobility, help them maintain their free existence, and allow them to question the stereotypical categorisation and national, cultural, and identitarian boundaries.