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The impact of power conflicts, such as Saddam Hussein’s authority in Iraq, is evident in the harsh lived experiences of communities in diaspora. Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber contextualises Arab American immigrant experiences through depictions of exile, fragmented selves, and persistent trauma that shape individual and collective memory. This investigation maps how Abu-Jaber’s characters embody the cultural and psychological outcomes of political upheaval while negotiating affiliation and estrangement in America. This will be achieved by employing intersecting theories of trauma, diaspora, and postcolonialism, including Bhabha’s notions of displacement and hybrid identity, Said’s conceptualisation of exile, and Caruth’s theories of trauma and memory. The novel serves as a site of memory and resistance to the hegemonic erasure of Arab distress. This qualitative and exploratory paper limits itself to highlighting the role of authoritarian violence in shaping narrative memory in Crescent. The paper concludes on an affirmative note that Arab American literature extends its scope beyond geographical exile to grapple with the individual experiences of being diasporic subjects.
Ms. Bibi Sadiqua. “Exile, Memory, and The Scent of Belonging: The Politics of Home in Crescent.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 4, August 2026, pp. 846-860. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n4.52.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
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