<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The Jordanian-American novelist Laila Halaby is perceived as one of the most well-known contemporary Arab-American writers whose hyphenated identity raises questions regarding which side of the hyphen she belongs to. In this respect, one way to determine whether Halaby identifies herself as an Arab or an American is to examine how she perceives and explores Arab and American cultures and to investigate the different images she constructs about Arabs and Americans. In <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ewcp-2019-0016_ref_006_w2aab3b8c17b1b7b1ab1ab6Aa"><italic>West of the Jordan</italic> (2003)</xref>, throughout the tales of the four female cousins, this American writer of Arab descent explores the Arab communal values and conventions, as well as the Western beliefs and ways of life. Most importantly, Halaby depicts different images of Arabs and non-Arabs in the context of social, political, and economic conflicts and relationships. In this article, the focus will be mainly on the images of non-Arabs in <italic>West of the Jordan</italic>. My study, accordingly, draws on Edward Said’s <italic>Orientalism</italic> and its counterpart <italic>Occidentalism</italic>, which offer theories of communal and identity construction, as well as practices that lead to stereotyping discourses about the other. This article will consequently start with a definition of the term <italic>Orientalism</italic> and its counterpart <italic>Occidentalism</italic>, moving on to deal with the different images of non-Arabs in the second part. Indeed, this latter section investigates how Halaby, who belongs to the Western and Eastern worlds, produces knowledge of the Western society and culture, by offering interesting representations of the two worlds. The third part will shed some light on Halaby’s attitude toward the American world and toward the Arab-American relationships.</p></abstract>

The Jordanian-American novelist Laila Halaby is perceived as one of the most well-known contemporary Arab-American writers whose hyphenated identity raises questions regarding which side of the hyphen she belongs to. In this respect, one way to determine whether Halaby identifies herself as an Arab or an American is to examine how she perceives and explores Arab and American cultures and to investigate the different images she constructs about Arabs and Americans. In West of the Jordan (2003), throughout the tales of the four female cousins, this American writer of Arab descent explores the Arab communal values and conventions, as well as the Western beliefs and ways of life. Most importantly, Halaby depicts different images of Arabs and non-Arabs in the context of social, political, and economic conflicts and relationships. In this article, the focus will be mainly on the images of non-Arabs in West of the Jordan. My study, accordingly, draws on Edward Said’s Orientalism and its counterpart Occidentalism, which offer theories of communal and identity construction, as well as practices that lead to stereotyping discourses about the other. This article will consequently start with a definition of the term Orientalism and its counterpart Occidentalism, moving on to deal with the different images of non-Arabs in the second part. Indeed, this latter section investigates how Halaby, who belongs to the Western and Eastern worlds, produces knowledge of the Western society and culture, by offering interesting representations of the two worlds. The third part will shed some light on Halaby’s attitude toward the American world and toward the Arab-American relationships.

Images of non-Arabs in <italic>West of the Jordan</italic> by Laila Halaby

East-West Cultural Passage

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Jordanian-American novelist Laila Halaby is perceived as one of the most well-known contemporary Arab-American writers whose hyphenated identity raises...

Images of non-Arabs in West of the Jordan by Laila Halaby

Published Online: Mar 17, 2020

Page range: 140 - 158

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2019-0016

Keywords
Orientalism, Occidentalism, image, schema, Arab-American, Arabs, non-Arabs

© 2019 Najoua Stambouli, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Images of non-Arabs in West of the Jordan by Laila Halaby

Published Online: Mar 17, 2020

Page range: 140 - 158

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2019-0016

KeywordsOrientalism, Occidentalism, image, schema, Arab-American, Arabs, non-Arabs

© 2019 Najoua Stambouli, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Orientalism, Occidentalism, image, schema, Arab-American, Arabs, non-Arabs