| Summary: | This study investigates the Arab novel written in English, notwithstanding its exclusion from postcolonial writing of minorities who live in the Anglophone world. It focuses on how identity is constructed and how it becomes problematic through cultural politics of nationalism, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and political history. It explores theories of cultural, regional, national and gender identities. It also examines theories of discursive and dispersive identities. Reading strategies are derived from such theories that address two questions: what are collective identities and how do individuals formulate their identities? The writers construct their identities by positioning themselves in relation to particular social conditions. Such positions and conditions are formed vis-a-vis the issues of cultural politics. Identity crisis emerges when the individuals struggle to reconcile the conflicting and transitional conditions of their positions inside and outside the 'nation-state'. Also, the differences of the social conditions and positions mould the 'hybrid' aspects of the individuals to the extent that there are types of hybridity which become a means of critique of the affinities of individuals with society and national identity. The predication of identity representations is not who we are but what identities are for. Textually, identity constructions are revealed through specific affiliations to the literary and religious traditions, The Arabian Nights, travel writing, the Qur'an and al-Manamat. The writers' engagement with these texts is part of their discourses on identity and can be described as modernist uses of the tradition. The texts express different affinities with the Arabic tradition and sphere. There are texts that have affiliations to the Arabic tradition and themes of Arab culture. There are texts that are only affiliated to the Arabic tradition. There are texts that only represent themes of Arab culture. Then, there are texts that have no affinities with the Arabic tradition and do not represent themes of the Arabic sphere. All these types of works are examined in this thesis in order to reveal complex aspects of what has been called 'The Problematic of Identity'.
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