|
" The Immigrant Writes Back: Diasporic Fiction, Gendered Islamophobia, and Living as a Pakistani Muslim Woman in America "
Imran, Mashal
Rosenthal, Regine
| Document Type
|
:
|
Latin Dissertation
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
1052150
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
TL51267
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Imran, Mashal
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
The Immigrant Writes Back: Diasporic Fiction, Gendered Islamophobia, and Living as a Pakistani Muslim Woman in America\ Imran, MashalRosenthal, Regine
|
| College
|
:
|
Dartmouth College
|
| Date
|
:
|
2019
|
| Degree
|
:
|
M.A.L.S.
|
| student score
|
:
|
2019
|
| Note
|
:
|
111 p.
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
Between 9/11 and the current era of the executive order infamously known as the ‘Muslim ban’, subscribing to Islam has transformed from being an individual’s private choice to a chink in the banner of civic nationhood proudly hoisted by the United States of America. Heavy spikes in hate crimes against Muslims following these two epoch-making moments show how members of this community are all too often deemed a threat to the safety, security, and well-being of the country as a whole. Such Islamophobia underscores how ‘belonging’ is a much wider notion than simply holding a passport, and raises several sociocultural questions. If citizenship is rooted in adherence to a set of voluntarily shared values, what happens when a certain group of immigrants, by virtue of their otherness, are seen as not only non-compliant to these values, but also a threat to the stability of the overarching structure enclosing them? In turn, what strategies do these immigrants use to negotiate their diasporic identity in such a world, particularly when their perceived disbelonging is accentuated and consolidated via stereotypes, social exclusion, harassment and hate crimes? And finally, what does the everyday reality of a community look like in a land where it is made to feel unwelcome? Amid such cultural racism, diasporic literature becomes an avenue for the immigrant to speak, and carve a counter-narrative that can challenge dangerous pigeonholing. Using literary texts authored by Pakistani Muslim women in America about what it means to live as a Pakistani Muslim woman in America between 9/11 and the presidency of Donald Trump, this thesis explores how one particular figure navigates her diasporic reality while existing at the periphery of race, religion, and gender, simultaneously. By presenting the sometimes banal, sometimes grand moments that make up her everyday existence in a foreign land, this project aims to underscore her extraordinary humanness — one that makes her worthy of empathy, justice, and rights in the nation she considers home. All in all, the goal of this piece is to bridge a gap in the field of literary and cultural studies, by not only generating scholarship on neglected topics such as gendered Islamophobia, female-authored Pakistani literature, and the Pakistani diaspora in America, but also encouraging debate and dialogue to carry this effort forward.
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
American studies
|
|
|
:
|
Cultural anthropology
|
|
|
:
|
Ethnic studies
|
|
|
:
|
Literature
|
|
|
:
|
Multicultural education
|
|
|
:
|
Social psychology
|
|
|
:
|
Social research
|
|
|
:
|
Sociology
|
|
|
:
|
South Asian studies
|
|
|
:
|
Womens studies
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Rosenthal, Regine
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Dartmouth College
|
| |