Proselytising cultural agency through culinary rituals in Diana Abu-Jaber’s crescent (2003)‎ : en route for creating a heteroclite universe

Abstract EN

Within the pandemonium that has entwined the Arab-American community on account of their impartiality toward ethnic groups and the mainstream centre, Arab-American authors have been confounded by the cargo of negotiating the borders of 'Arabness' and 'Americanness'.

Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent (2003) debriefs the fateful question of cultural agency and the vortex of marginality.

this paper catechizes Abu-Jaber's drive to create a heteroclite space wherein cultures are balanced, devoid of the plague of cultural barriers.

though the novel exposes the nostalgia that defines those who are someone else' hostage, Abu-Jaber empowers her characters to discourse their differences.

in defiance of cultural absolutism, the central characters channel America with the 'Terre Natale' by bringing the Arab culture, a stratagem of coalitions athwart ethnic confines.

accordingly, the act of twinning the Arab culture emulates the author's fervour to absorb borders, defying the passé cultural polarisations.