(Re-)Representation of Female Arab-American Identity through Literature. Public Self-Expression through Literature in two Contemporary Arab-American Novels by Female Authors

This thesis within the fields of Arab-American Studies, Culture Studies and Gender Studies provides a comparative literary analysis of the books "Arabian Jazz" by Diana Abu-Jaber and "The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf" by Mohja Kahf. Both authors are well established Arab-American writers and scholars living in the United States with Arab backgrounds, writing about the question of Arab-American women’s identity. Racialized gender stereotypes concerning Arab-Americans have become more widespread, entering a broader section of media and popular sensibilities, with both positive and negative connotations. This condition not only affects social groups, but also the particular individuals such stereotypes are directed at. Against the background of cultural theory and literary analysis, this thesis analyses modes of self-expression within contemporary literary works by Diana Abu-Jaber and Mohja Kahf, with the intention of determining how new modes of identity formation are represented within this literary/historical paradigm. Literary writing or public forms of representation are modes of identity construction, as they interact in the circuit of culture. This thesis argues that the two books address the topic of identity, with its connected discourses of gender, culture and ethnicity, directly within their contemporary historical setting, focusing on questions of stereotyping and modes of othering (racialization, Orientalism, gender discrimination), modes of identification (familial, institutional), modes of differentiation and hybridity. The hypothesis of this thesis is that the two selected literary works use their public character and their power to self-reflect in order to broach the issue of reinventing and re-establishing identity in the space of hybridity in a socially significant way. Through their significance, the literary works influence the circuit of culture and these works manifest against racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes and racialization of Arab-American women in the public eye. Through bringing together studies on Arab diaspora in America, Arab-American identity and different theoretical backgrounds in the fields of Culture and Gender Studies for literary analysis, the conclusion was that these works use different strategies to negotiate ethnicity and gender stereotypes against the current representation of Arab-American women and re-represent female Arab-American identity in a socially significant way, influencing the perception of Arab-American women. Both women establish and exemplify two different forms of Arab-American feminism, challenging the stereotyped representation