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العنوان
Identity Crisis and the Concept of Home in Some selected Works by Diana Abu-Jaber and Maxine Hong Kingston An M. A. Thesis in English Literature /
المؤلف
Sobhy, Hanafy Sobhy Hassaan.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / حنفي صبحي حسان صبحي
مشرف / احمد صابر محمود
مشرف / محمد فتحي سليمان
الموضوع
Psychiatrists - Fiction. Ocean travel - Fiction.
تاريخ النشر
2014.
عدد الصفحات
198 p. ;
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
ماجستير
التخصص
اللغة واللسانيات
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2014
مكان الإجازة
جامعة المنيا - كلية الآداب - اللغة الانجليزية
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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Abstract

This thesis focuses primarily on the writings of two Eastern American women who live in the United States and work to locate home in both the host country and their places of origin. A comparative study of Arabian Jazz and Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber and The Woman Warrior and Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book by Maxine Hong Kingston will lead to a fruitful exploration of how diasporic women-writers struggle to imagine, create, or find home and identity among the oppressive and empowering forces of both the U.S. and the Middle East.
This thesis aims to show the dilemma of identity and home among the second-generation immigrants and the difficulties of making a balanced identity and home within the American society in diaspora. Within a psychological and literary framework, the study examines how individuals located between cultures can understand their identities and homes, showing the importance of ethnic identity and home in coping with their hard life requirements. This study also shows how different life situations, especially in diaspora, have led to the crisis of identity and the quest for a stable home.The main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters .Chapter One includes the study of identity crisis in Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book by Maxine Hong Kingston and Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber. Identity crisis in Tripmaster Monkey by Kingston is best portrayed through Wittman’s paranoia of identity and how he is restored to himself by establishing a theater in the West to feel assimilated .Similarly, Diana Abu-Jaber’s
portrayal of identity crisis is best explored through her novel Crescent. In her Crescent, Sirine finds her stability and serenity in food as a way to attach to her Arab ethnic identity and home .This chapter includes some definitions of identity crisis and ethnic identity concepts. This chapter ends with a comparison between the two writers in tackling identity crisis in both works.
Chapter studies the theme of home in The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston and Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber is best explored through portraying the relationship among Kingston’s and Abu-Jaber’s protagonists through their attachments to home either in diaspora or in their country of origin. I would contend that both writers in their mentioned works could introduce their specific ideas concerning home and its threads by making connections towards their heritage. This chapter ends also with a comparison between both writers in tackling the concept of home. The researcher has concluded that both writers are not against the idea of assimilation, as long as he or she does not ignore his or her heritage and to keeps his or her ethnic identity and past.
In Chapter Three, the researcher studies the literary techniques both writers employ to trace the theme of identity crisis and the concept of home in the aforementioned works. It is noticeable that both writers employ the magic realism technique in which they could mix fact with fantasy to portray their attachments to their home, and to keep their ethnic identity; they employ this technique in their works as something inherited from their original culture and can be encountered within their host-land and imagination. The third chapter also analyses
and compares the four works technically. It also focuses on the different devices, which both writers employ such as talk-story, magic realism, and symbolism.
The Conclusion presents a summary of the findings of the thesis and makes further study suggestions concerning the crises of identity and home in the works of both writers.