Transnationalizing Ecocritical Studies in Arab Diasporic Fiction: A Case Study of Fadia Faqir’s My Name Is Salma

Abstract

Abstract Since Cheryll Glotfelty’s 1996 call to transnationalize ecocriticism, several strands of ecocriticism have managed, with varying degrees of success, to extend the study of nature beyond the white American context. Nevertheless, ecocritical studies to deal with multi-ethnic and diasporic subjects such as Arabic literature written in diaspora are still quite sparse. The present study aims to examine the degree to which the transnational turn in ecocritical theory has been implemented in Arabic literature in diaspora, by conducting an ecocritical analysis of My Name Is Salma (2007), a diasporic novel written by the Arab-British writer Fadia Faqir. The protagonist’s interactions with various natural settings in Lebanon, Cyprus and England offer a deeper insight into the role nature plays in shaping the identity of the Arab immigrant who leaves his or her native land to live in a foreign one. In this sense, not only would a more theoretically-based attention to ecocritical studies in Arab diasporic literature contribute to the current discussions of ecocriticism, but it would also offer further perspectives on the most commonly raised questions in Arabic diasporic literature.