Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics

Using a mix of literary and social analysis, this book examines a broad range of modern Arab American literary fiction and illustrates how numerous socio-political phenomena have affected the development of the Arab American novel. Salaita argues that in the United States a variety of fictions about Arabs and Islam circulate frequently in both popular and academic cultures. He endeavors in turn to highlight the diversities inscribed in the Arab American community that render it more complex than generally is acknowledged in public discussion, an endeavor undertaken through critique of a cross-section of modern Arab American novelists, including Etel Adnan, Rabih Alameddine, Joseph Geha, and Laila Halaby. Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics is the first original book of Arab American literary criticism and offers reflections on the viability of developing an Arab American Studies.

Steven Salaita is Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Tech and currently serves as Executive Director of the Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.  His previous books include Anti-Arab Racism in the USA and The Holy Land in Transit:  Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan. 
 

Introduction: The Searchings of an Arab ex-Student * Problems of Inclusion: Arab American Studies and Inalterable States of Being * The Internationalization of the Nation: The Uses of the Lebanese Civil War in Arab American Fiction * Honesty Lost: The Strange Circumstances of Love, Death, and Norma Khouri * Escaping Inadequate Spaces: Anti-Arab Racism and Liberating Fictions * Conclusion: Multicultural and Monocultural Disjunctions Introduction: The Searchings of an Arab ex-Student * Problems of Inclusion: Arab American Studies and Inalterable States of Being * The Internationalization of the Nation: The Uses of the Lebanese Civil War in Arab American Fiction * Honesty Lost: The Strange Circumstances of Love, Death, and Norma Khouri * Escaping Inadequate Spaces: Anti-Arab Racism and Liberating Fictions * Conclusion: Multicultural and Monocultural Disjunctions