Identity Crisis of USA Arab Immigrants in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019)

Abstract

Postcolonial identity issues continue to be contested in the modern times and are still relevant to the current context of immigration. This dissertation attempts to study this issue in Laila Lalami’s novel The Other Americans (2019). The novel pinpoints the modern day immigration as it explores the immigrants’ life in the host lands by highlighting the Arab Americans struggle after 9/11. In particular, this study investigates the way the selected characters (Driss, Maryam, Salma, and Nora) who emigrated from Morocco to the USA mirror displacement’s consequences which ultimately lead to identity crisis. The analysis borrows the concepts of hybridity, ambivalence, and mimicry as explained by Homi K. Bhabha.