My installations are propositions for an imaginary world that relies on its own internal logic, a world of believability without recognition. While the work references landscape it also emphasizes its contrivance, as it is automatically estranged in an "unnatural" gallery setting. I subvert or de-familiarize the materials and processes that I use in the service of creating a fictitious environment. My places are impossible places. They are irregular, illogical, and unstable. Our imagination can be one of most dangerous things to psychological stability as it is an inventory of all things possible, no matter how irrational or improbable. The irrational is always an option, a lingering threat. The imagination seems to hate permissions and limitations, but is nevertheless lodged within them. I want to create a sense of nonsensical logic. If all things that can be imagined are logical possibilities, I want to find the place where fantasy seems to be just barely reality. If I can't have an inherent contradiction, I'll take an apparent one.

This dissertation examines contemporary Iraqi North American women’s life narratives within the frame of postcolonial autobiography theory. Through narrating their experiences of oppression, war, and displacement these women reveal the fragmentation of identity that occurs under such unsettling situations. However, I argue that in the course of narrating their stories and in spite of the fragmentation they suffer, these women are able to establish selves that distinguish and recover from fragmentation and loss through a process I term defragmentation. They are able to defragment their identities by reconstructing unique selves through the act of life narration, through relational remembering, and finally by resisting patriarchal and Western influences on how they perceive themselves and their experiences. Thus they are able to defragment their sense of disjointedness and reaffirm their sense of Iraqiness, even in the diaspora. This study explores the major causes of fragmentation in the work, which are divided into trauma and displacement. Unlike the studies and statistics that political approaches and media coverage have provided, these works shed light on the disruptions caused by war, oppression, separation from loved ones, and exile in the daily lives of these narrators or the lives of their friends and relatives. Therefore, in addition to the new identity that these women create in order to cope with their new lives in the West, they also construct a hybrid identity that is capable of recollecting and narrating these traumatic experiences. Within the space of hybridity, Iraqi North American women have to deal with vast differences between Western and Middle Eastern cultures; the transformation entails not just a change of place but an acceptance or understanding of a new culture, a new religion, and a new identity. The struggle of settlement, or re-settlement, becomes that of establishing an identity that does reflect the stereotypical images of Middle Eastern women in Western perceptions and a struggle to maintain selves that can contain both the past life and the present in what can be considered a third space. Although the main topic of this dissertation is defragmentation in the life narrations of Iraqi North American women, this study also covers the cultural and political history of Arabs in general, and of Iraqis specifically. There are also references to the migrations of Arabs to North America and a brief background of the roots of Arab North American literature. These topics will be discussed in order to provide an understanding of the histories from which these women, or their families, have migrated and their positions within Western culture and scholarship. In addition, this approach provides an insight into the complexities of these women’s identities that reflect multi-layered affiliations, interests, and cultures. The works chosen for this study include written and oral life narratives by Iraqi North American women who write from Canada and the United States. These works are Zaineb Salbi’s Between Two Worlds: Escape From Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam (2005), Dunya Mikhail’s A Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (2009) and a National Film Board documentary titled Baghdad Twist (2007), by Jewish Iraqi Canadian Joe Balass. In the documentary, Joe Balass interviews his mother, Valentine Balass, as she recounts growing up in Iraq and later experiencing exile from her homeland. The final work I address is The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family (2007) by Leilah Nadir, a Canadian born Iraqi writer. Through her memoir Nadir tries to reconnect with her father’s family in Iraq while uncovering their traumatic experiences of the Gulf War. The narrators in my research belong to different social classes, age groups, and practice different religions, but they all identify themselves as Iraqi women. These women, through their interpretations of living life between two (or more) cultures, offer important perspectives not only on their own ethnic society, but also on the role of ethnic women in North American society in general. There has been a massive increase in the migration of Iraqi women to North America in the last thirty years; their perspectives on political, social, and religious changes are an important part of understanding the experiences of this ethnic group. Through their life narratives, these women are able to display their unique selves by portraying their ability to contest the boundaries and limitations of borders and societies that try to eliminate one identity or the other.

Cette thèse étudie des œuvres littéraires arabo-américaines contemporaines écrites par des femmes, plus spécifiquement les écrits d’Evelyn Shakir tels que Bint Arab, ainsi que plusieurs autres romans dont Arabian Jazz et Crescent de Diana Abu Jaber, The Inheritance of Exile de Susan Muaddi Darraj, The Night Counter d’Alia Yunis, et Once in a Promised Land de Laila Halaby. Elle montre comment ces œuvres construisent des univers où peuvent être interrogées les notions d’identité, de culture, d’ethnicité, et de genre. Les conflits quotidiens autour de l’identité sont traités en se fondant à la fois sur les œuvres critiques des femmes arabo-américaines et sur les études psycho-sociales du biculturalisme. De plus, ce travail met l’accent sur la formation de solidarités entre les femmes de couleur, en élargissant le concept de « conscience des zones frontalières » d’Anzaldua pour inclure les œuvres des écrivaines arabo-américaines. Les théories développées après la colonisation, particulièrement les études sur l’orientalisme à la suite d’Edward Said, sont également invoquées pour remettre en question le modèle oriental de la féminité. Enfin, cette thèse analyse la narration et son rôle dans la création d’un point d’ancrage pour les identités « exilées », insistant plus particulièrement sur la figure de Shéhérazade. Ce travail montre ainsi la façon dont les productions littéraires peuvent créer de nouveaux espaces pour comprendre les problèmes sociaux, politiques, culturels, ou ethniques. / This dissertation analyses contemporary Arab-American literary productions by female writers, specifically, Shakir’s collection of memoirs Bint Arab and her two short stories “Oh Lebanon” and “Name Calling,” as well as a selection of novels, Abu Jaber’s Arabian Jazz and Crescent, Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile, Alia Yunis’s The Night Counter, and Laila Halaby’s Once in a Promised Land. It shows how these works construct a space which enables them to investigate questions of identity, culture, ethnicity and gender. Identity conflicts around everyday matters like physical appearance, color, dress codes, veiling, chastity, and marriage are addressed by drawing upon critical works by Arab-American female writers and psycho-social studies on biculturalism. Moreover, this work emphasizes coalition-building with women of color by extending Anzaldua’s concept of the “consciousness of the borderlands” to encompass works by Arab-American female writers. Theories by post-colonial thinkers, particularly Said’s studies on Orientalism, also contribute to the dissertation’s questioning of the Oriental model of womanhood. Finally, this dissertation envisages critical works that study storytelling and its role in creating a surrogate home for “exilic” identities, with special emphasis on the Scheherazadian narrative. This project views literary productions as an appropriate way to investigate social, political, cultural and ethnic issues. It shows how writings by Arab-American women contribute to exploring inner identity conflicts, how they connect with other minority groups, and how they create a new sense of home.

<p>This dissertation examines the negotiations between narrative, identity, and place in the fictional works of three major contemporary Muslim women descendants of Arab immigrants: Leila Houari, Faiza Guène, and Mohja Kahf. The study focuses on four novels: <i>Zeida de nulle part, Kiffe kiffe demain</i>, <i>Du rêve pour les oufs</i>, and <i>The Girl with The Tangerine Scarf</i>. </p><p><br></p> <p>Two key questions structure my examination of the four novels: 1) How do Muslim women living in a non-Muslim society construct and negotiate their individual and collective identities?; 2) To what extent does their experience of space (domestic, public, national) shape their perceptions of self? These questions form a foundation for better understanding the experience of Muslim women living in predominantly non-Muslim societies. I must emphasize, however, that this is in no way a representation of all Muslim women living in majoritarian non-Muslim societies and in no way can summarize each and every experience. If anything, the dissertation provides an account of diverse sets of experiences of what some may encounter, rather than a collective static representation. </p><p><br></p> <p>By doing so, this study aims to decrease the dissonance between the different viewpoints of the women characters in these novels by highlighting their experiences and subjecting certain misconceptions to critical scrutiny. The dissertation relies on an interdisciplinary approach, as it integrates different theories and concepts ranging from cognitive science, postcolonial studies, literary studies, psychology, and religious studies.</p> <br> <p> </p>

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