The Non-National in Contemporary American Literature : Ethnic Women Writers and Problematic Belongings

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. This study examines contemporary narratives by Arab-American, South-Asian American, Chicana, and Cuban-American women writers. Gomaa argues that the disparate histories of Arabs, South Asians, Chicanas, and Cubans in the U.S. unfold new non-national sites for affiliations and identifications that unsettle notions of a unified American national space. In each chapter a South-Asian American, Chicana, or Cuban-American text is paired with an Arab-American text to examine sites of ambivalence, which problematize an individual's sense of belonging to an "imagined community." The author proposes a redefinition of imagined communities to imagined transnational communities, which are formed beyond the geographical boundaries of a single nation and are not nation-centered. This study values Arab-American writings as a potential terrain to expand American Studies, and calls attention to Arab-American feminist strategies that contribute to theoretical debates by and about American women writers "Cover"--"Title Page" -- "Copyright Page" -- "Dedication" -- "Table of Contents" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "Introduction" -- "1 The Non-national Subject in The Language of Baklava and An American Brat" -- "2 Reimagining the US National Time in West of the Jordan and The Last Generation" -- "3 Moments of (Un)belonging: The Spatial Configuration of Home(land) in The Time between Places: Stories that Weave in and out of Egypt and America and The Namesake" -- "4 Transnational Allegories and the Non-national Subject in The Ag Ãơ ero Sisters and The Night Counter" -- "Afterword" -- "Notes" -- "Bibliography." Cover 1 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 14 1 The Non-national Subject in The Language of Baklava and An American Brat 39 2 Reimagining the US National Time in West of the Jordan and The Last Generation 74 3 Moments of (Un)belonging: The Spatial Configuration of Home(land) in The Time between Places: Stories that Weave in and out of Egypt and America and The Namesake 104 4 Transnational Allegories and the Non-national Subject in The Ag ü ero Sisters and The Night Counter 140 Afterword 174 Notes 176 Bibliography 186 Index 200 Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-25 The Non-national Subject in The Language of Baklava and An American Brat ....Pages 27-61 Reimagining the US National Time in West of the Jordan and The Last Generation ....Pages 63-92 Moments of (Un)belonging: The Spatial Configuration of Home(land) in The Time between Places: Stories that Weave in and out of Egypt and Arnerica and The Namesake ....Pages 93-128 Transnational Allegories and the Non-national Subject in The Agüero Sisters and The Night Counter ....Pages 129-162 Afterword....Pages 163-164 Back Matter....Pages 165-195 "This study argues that the notion of Americanness is constructed nationally within the U.S. geographical space, as well as transnationally outside that space. The transnational perception of the U.S. nation-space makes possible ambivalent positionings, which the author describes as non-national sites that challenge singular national affiliations and identifications"-- Provided by publisher In this wide-ranging study, Gomma examines contemporary migrant narratives by Arab-American, Chicana, Indian-American, Pakistani-American, and Cuban-American women writers. Concepts such as national consciousness, time, space, and belonging are scrutinized through the "non-national" experience, unsettling notions of a unified America.