From Nostalgia to Critique: An Overview of Arab American Literature Author(s): Tanyss Ludescher Source: MELUS, Vol. 31, No.

4, Arab American Literature (Winter, 2006), pp. 93-114 Published by: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30029684 . Accessed: 23/05/2011 06:13
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From Nostalgia to Critique: An Overview of Arab American Literature

Tanyss Ludescher
University of Connecticut One major purpose of this special issue of MELUS is to introduce scholars, critics, teachers, and students of ethnic literary works to an understudiedand undervaluedarea of ethnic literature. This essay provides an overview of the history of Arab American literature,with particularattentionto the history of Arab immigration. In addition to introducingreaders to the major figures and major themes in the literature, it also points to the future by consideringunresolvedquestions and unexploredsubjects. Arab Americanliteraturemirrorsthe patternsof Arab American history,which scholarshave traditionallydivided into threephases, based on the three distinct waves of Arab immigrantswho came to the US.' The first wave (1880-1924) of immigrantswas made up of Greek Orthodox,Maronite,and Melchite Christiansfrom Mount Syrianand Palestinianprovinces. For Lebanonand the surrounding the first several years, immigration documents identified these Christians as Turks because they were subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The immigrants, however, despised their repressive Ottomanoverseers and preferredto identify themselves as Syrians. Unskilled and often illiterate,many of these early ChristianArabs found work as itinerantpeddlers, fanning across the country, and often spending months on the road. It was a lifestyle which accelerated assimilation because it provided ample opportunities to learn English and mix with the local populace. Later, the Syrians settled in widely dispersed communitiesacross the country,where many opened retail shops. Generallyhardworking law abiding, and the immigrantsenthusiasticallyembracedAmericanvalues.
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Immigrationfrom Greater Syria came to a halt during World War I, when famine and war ravaged the homeland. Although immigrationresumed after the war, it came to a virtual standstill when harsh quotas were imposed on Syrians and other unwelcome ethnic groups in 1924. With immigration slowed to a trickle of approximatelyone hundred people a year, the population of the once vibrant, scattered community was not replenished. Despite the publication in the United States of numerousArabic-language newspapers, the Syrians were increasingly cut off from events in their country of origin. As Alixa Naff notes, many Syrian Americans were largely unconscious of the nationalistaspirationsin their homeland that led to the formation of the new Lebanese state in 1947 (16). The second wave of immigrationbegan in the decade following World War II. Unlike the first wave, which was predominantly Christian,the new wave contained a significant number of Muslims. This second wave of immigrants consisted of educated, skilled professionals,who were more likely to be familiarwith the nationalist ideologies that permeated the Arab world. Unlike the Syrian Christians,they staunchly identified themselves as Arabs. Included in this group were a numberof Palestinianrefugees who had been rendered stateless as a result of the catastrophic 1948 Arab-IsraeliWar. The thirdmajorwave of immigration,which began in 1967 and continues to this day, acceleratedthe trendsof the post-WorldWar II immigrationperiod. In 1965, new liberalized immigrationlaws abolished the long-standing quota system. As a result, large numbers of West Bank Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims from SouthernLebanon fled to America after the 1967 war with Israel and the Israeli occupationof Palestinianlands. The Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s produceda furtherflood of refugees. Imbued with anti-colonial sentiment and Arab nationalist ideas, this new group was highly politicized. For the first time, Arab American organizationswere formed to defend the Arab point of view and to combat negative stereotypes of Arabs in the popular press. Newly sensitized to their ethnic identity by worldwide political events, the descendantsof first- and second-wave immigrantsjoined their newly arrived countrymenin support of Arab concerns. The Palestiniancause became the centralrallying cry of

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many Arab Americans,regardlessof background.The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Gulf War, and the 1987 Palestinian uprising against Israel (the First Intifada) further politicized the ArabAmericancommunity. The Mahjar Group The Mahjar (Arabic for "place of immigration")movement in literaturerefers to the body of work producedby diasporicwriters in North and South America duringthe early part of the twentieth century. The South American branch of the Mahjar group was centeredin Brazil. On the whole, the group was more conservative than its northerncounterpartand produced few innovations that would challenge the prevailing neo-classical traditionof poetry in the Arab world (Badawi, Critical Introduction 196). The North American branchof the Mahjar group was centered in New York and revolved around the forceful personality of Kahlil Gibran. Unlike the southernbranch,it showed no reverence for traditional Arab culture (Jayyusi 70). Freed from the conservativeconstraints of the Arab world and bred on the American ideals of liberty and progress, the northern Mahjar writers challenged Arab cultural norms in ways that were heretofore unimaginable. Under the influence of western Romanticism and American transcendentalism, this group inaugurated new age of Romanticliteraturein the a Arabworld (Badawi, Critical Introduction203). The unique blending of American and Arabic culture culminated in the formation of "the first genuine literary school in modem Arabic"(Ostle 96). Banded togetheraroundal-Funun (The Arts), an ambitious literaryjournal edited by Naseeb Arida from 1913-1918 and the twice-weekly newspaper al-Sa 'ih (The Traveler), which was established in 1912 by Abd al-Maseeh Haddad, the group developed a remarkablycohesive philosophy of literature and life. In 1920, the movement culminatedin the formation of Ar-Rabitahal-Qalamiyyah,or "The Pen League," a revolutionary society self-consciously dedicated to literaryreform. According to poet and novelist Mikhail Naimy, the main theoretician of the group, the purpose of the society was "to lift Arabic literature from the quagmireof stagnationand imitation,and to infuse a new life into its veins so as to make of it an active force in the building

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up of the Arab nations" (Kahlil Gibran 154). With these clearly nationalisticgoals in mind, the group encouragedthe translationof European masterpieces and sought the publication of its own works as well as the works of other worthy Arab writers. In his famous book on literary criticism, al-Ghirbal, Naimy articulates the Romanticprinciples that guided the group (see N. Naimy 12540). The writer, he argued, is a prophet and a philosopherwho is endowed with a special capacity for discovering the truth.Literature must be focused on content, not form, for the properprovince of literature is life itself. He satirizes those writers who view Arabic as a sacred heritage and insists that creative experimentation with the language must replace the empty exercises in imitation prevalentamong the Arabwritersof the day. Among the numerous qualities that united the group were a focus on the subjective experience of the poet and a belief in the transcendent power of nature.They were also famous for their use of biblical forms and imagery (Badawi, Short History 46). Indeed, their use of simple meters and stanzaic forms left the group, many of whom were self-taught,or the productsof sporadicand incomplete education (see M. Naimy, Sab'un 2:170-82), open to the charge that they were not qualified for the rigorous grammatical challenges required of classical Arabic. But perhaps the quality that most distinguished the northern Mahjar writers was their interest in Eastern religion and mysticism. The great majority of writers and intellectuals in the Arab world were secular (Cachia 140). So the focus on Eastern religion by the members of the Mahjargroupwas highly unusual. Most northernMahjar literaturewas written in Arabic; however, threeprominentmembersof the group,Ameen Rihani,Kahlil Gibran,and MikhailNaimy, also produceda significantnumberof works in English. In addition to his Arabic works, Ameen Rihani produced an English translation of The Quatrains of Abu'l-Ala, (1903); a book of poetry called Myrtle and Myrrh(1905); a novel, TheBook of Khalid (1911); a book of political essays, TheDescent of Bolshevism (1920); a collection of contemplative essays, The Path of Vision (1921); a collection of mystical poetry in the Sufi traditiontitled A Chant of Mystics (1921); and three travelogues. Gibranpublished seven spiritualworks in English: The Madman (1918); The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems (1920); The

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Prophet (1923); Sand and Foam (1926); Jesus the Son of Man (1928); The Earth Gods (1931); and The Wanderer(1932). Mikhail Naimy, along with Gibran,the most spiritualmember of the group, wrote one work in English, the religious parable The Book of Mirdad (1948). In addition, he translatedthree of his Arabic works into English: Kahlil Gibran:A Biography (1950); Memoirs of a VagrantSoul (1952); and a collection of his Russian-inspired short stories, Till We Meet (1957). Although these writers had a profound effect on modem Arabic literature,they never attained the same staturein American literature.Among the three writers, only Gibranis well known, though his work is widely ignored by American critics. This is unfortunate,for these writers produced work of real qualitythat deserves a place in Americanliterature. All three of these writers came from poor peasant families in Mount Lebanon. Kahlil Gibran was bom to Maronite parents in 1883 in Besharri, a mountain village in northern Lebanon, and MikhailNaimy was born to Greek Orthodoxparentsin Baskinta,a small village in central Lebanon, in 1889. Like other Christiansin the isolated Christianenclave of Mount Lebanon,they had little or no contact with the Muslims who lived outside their community; however, they grew up at a time when the close-minded Christian sects of Mount Lebanon were just beginning to emerge from centuries of isolation. Like Lebanese versions of the proverbial EuropeanOrientalist,they longed to discover the mysteries that lay hidden in the Arab world. For many, their first insight into the rich civilization of the Arabworld would come in the United States.2 Certainthemes, therefore,appearagain and again in the lives of Rihani, Gibran,Naimy, and the otherMahjarwriters.Among these themes are the desperateneed to escape the mundanematerialism of the peddler lifestyle; the importance of missionary school educationin Lebanon;the effect of French,British, and/orRussian cultureon the individualimmigrant;the desire to transcendsectarian religious conflict; admirationfor American vitality and hatred of American materialism;a desire for reform in the Arab world; acute concern about international politics and the political survival of the homeland;an obsessive interestin East/Westrelations;and a The Mahjarwriters desire to play the role of culturalintermediary. viewed themselves as cultural middlemen straddling the great divide between East and West. As they saw it, their mission was

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twofold: to promote cultural, social, and political reform in the East, based on the Western model, and to encourage a spiritual awakeningin the West, based on the Easternmodel. The Second Phase of Arab American Immigration According to Michael Suleiman, World War I was a turning point in the history of the Arab American community.Before this date, most Arab American immigrants viewed themselves as temporaryworkers,"peoplewho were in, but not partof American society" ("Introduction" They planned to accumulate capital 4). and returnto their homeland.To this end, they saved their money, lived in squalid, overcrowded hovels, and gathered in residential colonies, where they encouraged intermarriage,associated with relatives and people from the same town and religious sect, and kept their distance from Americans. All of this changedwith the advent of World War I. During this period, communicationwith the homeland was rupturedand the communityhad to fall back on its own resources.The introduction of strict immigration quotas in the 1920s increased the community's sense of isolation and encouraged a feeling of communal unity and solidarity, which had begun during the war. Only after World War I, notes Suleiman, did "the Arabs in the United States become truly an Arab-Americancommunity"("Arab-Americans" 43). As it dawned on Arab Americansthat it was unlikely thatthey would ever return to their country, they were forced to address crucial questions about their identity as Arab Americans and their relationship to America. The realization greatly speeded up the process of assimilation and led to decreased sectarian conflict, increased calls for unity, and more participationin the American political process. During World War I, many fought alongside American forces or joined the war effort by buying liberty bonds. The experience augmented the community's sense of patriotism and made them feel that they were now part of the American community. Most of the popular accounts of immigrantlife written during the first and second phases of Arab Americanliteraturereflect this process of assimilation.George Haddad'sMt. Lebanon to Vermont (1916) is an immigrantsuccess story, which recounts the author's

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love for his adoptedcountry.Ashad Hawie's jingoistic autobiography, The Rainbow Ends (1942), describes his experience as a member of the American ExpeditionaryForces in World War I. The goal of the book is to promote the Syrian community in the US by making the public aware of the brave efforts of this ethnic group in the war effort. Syrian Yankee(1943), by Salom Rizk, is a classic of the immigrantbiographygenre. Born an orphanin a poor Syrian village, Rizk discovers at the age of twelve that his mother is an Americanand that he is thus entitledto Americancitizenship. The discovery is a turningpoint in his life. In the following years, Rizk manages to reach America. Once there, he struggles through the Depression and World War II, all the while attemptingto prove himself worthy of his destiny to become an American citizen. Eventually, Rizk becomes a lecturer. Sponsored by the Reader's Digest, he travels around the country, touting the American immigrant ideal. Finally, George Hamid's Circus (1950) is a rousing but conventionalrags to riches tale that recounts Hamid's experience as an acrobatand renowned circus owner. Recruitedat an early age by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Hamid was only one of many Lebanese young men who traveled to the US to become acrobats, a profession that was dominated by the Lebanese. Despite their enthusiasm about becoming Americans, Arab Americans soon found that there would be impediments on the road to assimilation in the form of charges that they were racially inferior and thus not worthy of becoming American citizens. In 1914, Lebanese immigrant George Dow was denied American citizenship on the basis that he was Asian and did not belong to the white race. According to the NaturalizationAct of 1790, citizenship could only be extended to "free white persons."The shocked Syrian communitymanagedto resolve the problemby demonstrating that they were Arabs and thereforemembers of the Caucasian 6-7). Although George Dow race (see Suleiman, "Introduction" was eventually admitted to citizenship, the problem did not go away. The community would endure a series of court cases challenging their racial statusbetween 1909 and 1915 and again during the 1940s. Duringthe process, notes Lisa SuheirMajajin her essay "Arab-Americansand the Meaning of Race," a clear connection was made between "western European, Christian identity and

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'whiteness'" (323) and "non-European,non-Christian and nonwhite identity"(323). The apprehension and concern that the attacks on the racial status of the Arab American community caused are evident in the early works of Arab American writers. As Majaj points out, the authors of these texts tended to stress the aspects of their culture that were acceptable to Americans and to downplay those aspects notes of their culturethat were alien to Americans."In particular," Majaj, "they stressedtheir Christianidentity [and] their geographical origin in the 'Holy Land'"("Meaningof Race" 328). Prime examples of this tactic can be found in two works by the LebaneseAmericanProtestantministerAbrahamRihbany.3One of the best of the early Arab immigrantautobiographies,Rihbany's book A Far Journey (1914) is filled with biblical allusions that place his life firmly within the biblical context. The Syrian Christ (1916),4 a remarkablework, which explains Christ's life from the vantage point of a Middle Easterner,makes the following startling claim: "I was born not far from where the Master was born, and brought up under almost the identical conditions under which he lived, I have an 'inside view' of the Bible which, by the natureof things, a Westernercannot have. And I know," he continues, "that the conditions of life in Syria to-day are essentially as they were in
the time of Christ. . . . [W]henever I open my Bible it reads like a

letter from home" (5). Rihbany sanctifies the everyday customs, language, and beliefs of the Middle East by associating them with the life of Jesus. The Second Generation of Arab American Literature By World War II, the Arab Americancommunitywas virtually indistinguishablefrom the larger American community, a process that was facilitatedby their sharedChristianfaith and the fact that they did not exhibit easily discernableracial or ethnic featuresthat distinguished them from the general population. By the time the second generation of Arab Americans came of age, most did not speak Arabic and many had only a superficial understandingof their Arabheritage.

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As Evelyn Shakir, an Arab American academic who has emerged as the main critic of the second generation of Arab Americanwriters,notes: The firstgeneration Arab-American of writers(as mightbe expected of immigrants an age of rampant of xenophobia) dressed for carefully their encounter public, puttingon the guise of with the American prophet, or preacher, man of letters.They could not hide theirforeignness,but they could make it respectable. TheirAmerican born children-those who came of age in the 1930s, 1940s,and 1950sand hoped to pass, costumedthemselvesas "regular Americans" which may be why they produced so little literature.("Arab6) American Literature" The three major Arab American writers of this period, Vance Bourjaily, William Peter Blatty, and Eugene Paul Nassar, saw themselves as mainstream writers and did not identify as Arab Americans. On the few occasions when they did address the issue of their ethnic identity, they were hard pressed to know how to deal with it because they were bereft of ethnic literarymodels to draw upon. In "Arab-American Literature,"Shakir discusses the different strategiesadoptedby these authorsto deal with the issue of ArabAmericanidentity. Vance Bourjaily,the son of a Lebanese fatherand an American mother, exhibits little or no feeling of ethnicity in his two novels, which deal with the Middle East, The End of My Life (1947) and Confessions of a Spent Youth(1960). If anything, Bourjaily tells us, his views were "vaguely Zionist" (Confessions 247). Quince, novel Confessions the protagonistof Bourjaily's autobiographical of a Spent Youth, explains that his paternal heritage "was not particularlya secret, rathersomething which my fatherdismissed" (238). In this book, Bourjaily does briefly explore the issue of ethnic identitywhen he returnsto Kabb Elias, his father's ancestral village in Lebanon. Welcomed with open arms by his great-aunt Naife and her extended family, he experiences a feeling of kinship and belonging that has eluded him in American society. But the feeling of belonging is only temporaryand cannot provide permanent relief for the modem American condition. In the final analysis, Bourjaily's exploration of his ethnic heritage is only one of many devices he uses to explore the quintessentially modem

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lack of Americanthemes of alienation,rootlessness, inauthenticity, identity, and the tenuous and temporal nature of human community. If Vance Bourjailywas largely indifferentto his ArabAmerican background,William Peter Blatty, the authorof The Exorcist, was embarrassedand overwhelmed by his ethnic identity (personified by his brash, loud, and domineering mother) and tried hard to Literature" and "Arab escape it (see Shakir, "Arab-American 7-8 Mothers" 8-11). During his childhood, which he describes in his hilarious autobiographyWhichWayto Mecca, Jack? (1960), he is forced to endure the cruel jokes of neighborhood children, who will not let him forget that he is alien and strange.The experience produces a lifelong "fixation"with being Arab. Later, he tried to become an actor in Hollywood but was rejected because he was too "Biblical."Although he finally learns to appreciatehis Lebanese backgroundduringa tour of duty in Lebanonworking for the US InformationAgency, he does not forget the insults he received in Hollywood. In an uproarioussend-up,he disguises himself as an Arabian prince and returns to Hollywood, where he uses every romantic stereotype in the oriental lexicon to impress and ultimately mock the gullible Hollywood bigwigs. Which Way to Mecca, Jack? is a farce, a self-mocking parody of ethnic life, which uses humor to dispel the angst of being different and foreign. By making himself ridiculous, Blatty can appearless frightening and alien to his all-Americanaudience. In a companion book, I'll Tell ThemI Remember You (1973), Blatty comes to terms with the death of his strong-willed mother and tenderly acknowledges the lasting role she has played in his life. But he does not abandon his comic routine. To a modem reader, this routine bears an uncanny resemblance to the ethnic shtick used by BorschtBelt comics. This is not surprisinggiven the time period and the author's connection to Hollywood; Jewish humorwas the main model of ethnic humorduringthis period. Eugene Paul Nassar's memoir of growing up in a Lebanese American neighborhood in Utica, New York, Wind of the Land (1979), is an unabashedly sentimentalportraitof an ethnic community (see Shakir, "Arab-AmericanLiterature"8). Nassar, an academic and literary critic, makes no attemptto create a multidimensionalportrait,which depicts the good as well as the bad side

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of communal life. Nor is there any attemptto deal with anti-Arab stereotypingor political issues, like the Arab-Israeliconflict, that affected the community. Instead, he celebrates the people and the enduringvalues of the community. The elegiac tone of the work achieves a kind of urgency because he is describinga world that is fading into extinction. Phase Three: Embracing Arab American Ethnicity The experience of poet and critic Lisa SuhairMajajin the 1980s mirrorsthe experience of many Arab American authors searching for a community of writers. In her essay "Two Worlds Emerging: Arab-American Writing at the Crossroads," she discusses the difficulties she faced as the child of an American mother and a Palestinianfathergrowing up in Jordan,and later attendinggraduate school in the United States. The experience left her feeling marginalizedand alienatedin both societies. A turningpoint came, as it did for many Arab Americanwriters,when she read the work of Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston, Native American poet Joy Harjo, and other ethnic writers.5Heartenedby the experience, she began to look for Arab American writers who would help her meld the disparateaspects of her own identity. It was difficult to find the authorsbecause she had to look for them under diverse ethnic categories such as Lebanese, Syrian, or even Turkish,or under obscure religious categories such as Melchite or Maronite.She was also struckby the lack of scholarly criticism on the subject: "'Arab-Americanliterature'as a category was almost completely absent from listings of immigrantand ethnic-American (69), she notes. literature" For Majaj and other Arab American writers, the defining moment in the history of Arab American literaturecame with the publication of two anthologies of Arab American literature, a twenty-pagecollection called Wrapping GrapeLeaves: A Sheaf the of Contemporary Arab-AmericanPoets (1982), edited by Gregory Orfalea,and the largerand more comprehensiveanthology, Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-AmericanPoetry (1988), edited by Orfalea and Sharif Elmusa. The publication of the latter work,
notes Majaj, "was a major event. . . . [I]ts presence in bookstores

and on library shelves made it possible for general readers to

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discover Arab Americanwriterswithout first acquiringspecialized knowledge. Moreover its publication established 'Arab-American Literature' as a category on computer data-bases and in card catalogues" ("Two Worlds" 71-72). In addition to poets from an earlier age, Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-AmericanPoetry introducedreadersto a large numberof Arab Americanpoets who are still writing. During the early 1990s, the modem communityof Arab American writers also saw the publication of one of its first works of fiction. In 1990, Joseph Geha publisheda collection of shortstories called Throughand Through: Toledo Stories, which explores the conflicts in the Lebanese American community. intergenerational Although Elmaz Abinader'spoetry appearedin Grape Leaves, she is most famous for her autobiographicalnovel Children of the Roojme: A Family's Journey (1991), which is based on family diaries and letters. Her realistic account of tyranny, famine, war, painful family divisions, and the perils involved in the emigration experience is a refreshing antidote to the idealized accounts that are often found in ArabAmericanmemoirs. Moreover,Abinaderis not afraid to explore the oppression of women and the different perspectives that men and women bring to experience (see Majaj, "Two Worlds"75-76). One of the most gifted novelist in the Arab American commuAmericanwriter Diana Abu-Jaber.Her seminity is the Jordanian autobiographical1993 novel Arabian Jazz produced a flurry of controversybecause it broke an unwrittenrule in the Arab American communitythat members should not criticize Arabs and Arab Americans in public. In her imaginative and comic novel, AbuJaber lampoons American society, attacking, in particular,antiArab bigots, as well as Arab society. Despite her final acceptance of both communitiesand her thoughtfulmeditationon the vagaries of living with a hyphenatedidentity, some readerswere offended by her grotesquestereotypesof Arabs.6This reactiondemonstrates a perennial problem in ethnic literature,that writers who openly criticize the community run the risk of being ostracized and censoredby the group.

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Arab American literaturereally began to flower in the mid1990s as established writers like Lebanese American poet David Williams and Sephardic Jewish American poet Jack Marshall continuedto publish new works, and new writers appearedon the scene. Among the new poets are Lebanese AmericanHaas Mroue, Detroit-born Hayan Charara, Palestinian American Nathalie Handal,and Libyan AmericanKhaled Mattawa.Two female poets in this group consider themselves Islamic feminists. SyrianAmerican Mohja Kahf wears a head scarf, but is also known for writing explicitly erotic poems. Suheir Hammad, a young hip-hop poet, was born in a refugee camp in Jordanand grew up in an African American and Hispanic neighborhood in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She is most famous for her role as writer and cast member in the 2003 Tony Award-winning show "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway" (see Smith). Among the crop of new fiction writers are Lebanese American Patricia SarrafianWard, Palestinian American Kathryn Abdul-Baki, Jordanian American Laila Halaby, Lebanese American Frances Khirallah Noble, Syrian American Mona Simpson, and Egyptian American Samia Serageldin. In the last decade, in particular,the works of Arab American writers were taught in the college curriculum, and conferences were held that were specifically devoted to Arab American literature. Several anthologies devoted to this literature appeared, notably Food for Our Grandmothers:Writingsby Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists (1994), edited by Joanna Kadi; Post-Gibran: Anthology of New Arab American Writing (1999), edited by MunirAkash and KhaledMattawa;Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of ContemporaryArab American Fiction (2004), edited by Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa; and Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab and Arab American Womenon Writing (2004), edited by Susan Muaddi Darraj. In 1996, journalist and broadcaster BarbaraNimri Aziz formally establishedthe Radius of Arab-AmericanWriters,Incorporated,or RAWI (the word means "storyteller" Arabic), an organizationof Arab American writers in dedicatedto promotingand encouragingthe work of Arab Ameri-

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can authors. RAWI holds an annual writing workshop and publishes a newsletterthreetimes a year. Two factors spurredthe growth of Arab American literature. The first was the search for voices outside the traditionalcanon of Anglo-American male literature,a search which led to the burgeoning interest in ethnic American writers. The second factor, like so many things in the Arab American community,was political. Recent events in the Arabworld combinedto raise the political consciousness and solidarityof the Arab Americancommunity.In order to combat the proliferationof anti-Arabstereotypes,writers dedicatedthemselves to putting a human face on the Arab American immigrant population. Paradoxically, the events of 9/11 increased the public's interest in this heretofore ignored community. Issues Facing Arab American Writers Today One of the most importantissues facing the Arab American community today has to do with the question of what constitutes Arab Americansare partof an extremely Arab Americanliterature. Ameridiverse group, which includes third- and fourth-generation cans, recent immigrants, people from different countries and religious backgrounds, and Arabic and non-Arabic speakers. Should Arab Jews and non-Arabic speakers be included in this group?What about writers like Sam Hazo, who do not identify as Arab Americans,or writerslike Mona Simpson, who choose not to write about their ethnicity, or writers like Naomi ShihabNye, who write about it only some of the time? Should they be considered Arab American writers?7 Furthermore,should Arab American writers focus on the Arab side of experience, emphasizing the traditionsand values of the Arab world, or should they focus on the American side of experience, emphasizing American immigrantexperiencein the context of multiculturalism?8 Arab American women writers face their own particularset of problems. When Arab American women criticize the patriarchal natureof their society, they are often accused of abandoningtheir own cultureand adoptingWesternmodes of thought(Majaj,"New Directions" 75). This is exacerbatedby the fact that feminism is associated with Western imperialism and is therefore viewed as

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anti-religious and anti-nationalist(Darraj 193). Feminism is an emotionally fraughtissue in the Arab world. Because the treatment of women is often used as a weapon to attackArabs, any criticism of patriarchyis viewed as a reinforcementof negative anti-Arab stereotypes and an attack on the community. Finally, Arab and ethnic women writers who confirm the popular prejudices about the treatment of Arab women run the risk of pandering to the commercialinterestsof the Westernmarketplace.As Amal Amireh points out, works by Arab women are often "marketed"and "manipulated"by publishers "to meet the expectations and assumptionsof WesternReaders."9 One of the most painful issues that confronts Arab American writers is how to react to the 9/11 terroristattacks.In a thoughtful article published shortly after 9/11, editor Elie Chalala expressed the shock and horrorthat many Arab American writers and intellectuals felt. In one fell swoop, he notes, the terroristsdestroyed the very thing that he and many others had spent years trying to correct: anti-Arab stereotyping in American society.10 Although some Arab American intellectuals have argued that they do not need to explain themselves to the Americanpublic because they do not sharethe views of the terrorists,Chalalafeels that explanations are required to prevent a racist backlash. He also feels that the Arab American community should reexamine its blind allegiance to the political discourse of the Arab world and stop automatically defending "any position taken by the Arab states" ("Rethinking Ideas" 14). Similarly thoughtful responses to the terroristattacks have been expressed in literature by writers Elmaz Abinader, SuheirHammad,LawrenceJoseph, and D. H. Melhem.11 A final issue is the need for experimentationin new literary genres. Indeed, it was the paucity of fiction, drama, screenplays, and other genres that led the editors of Post-Gibran:Anthology of New Arab American Writingto specifically ask for "cross-genre Up experiments"(Akash and Mattawaxiii) from their contributors. until very recently, most Arab American writers confined their literary output to autobiographyand poetry. The autobiographies tended to fall into one of two patterns:rags to riches American success stories or nostalgic, sanitized accounts of family and communal life. Most "serious" writers eschewed this simplistic approachand tended to concentrateon poetry. Yet as Lisa Suhair

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Mujaj notes in "New Directions: Arab American Writing at Century's End," poetry has its own limitations. The lyric works best "for nostalgic celebrationsof family and community, and for anguisheddepictions of war and suffering"(70), she argues, but it does not provide the kind of in-depth analysis that is needed to understandthe complexity of the Arab Americanexperience.Now that Arab American writers have a stronger sense of community and identity, it is time to "move beyond cultural preservation toward transformation"(71), writes Majaj. This transformation will require, among other things, the adoption of new literary genres, a new sophisticated form of literary analysis, and the courage to engage in communalself-criticism. Conclusion In a 2002 on-line interview published in The Iranian, Elie Chalala, the editor of Al Jadid, summarizedthe current state of Arab American literatureas follows: "Thereare a great numberof Arab women writing outside of the Arab countries.This literature norms. The early tends to be very secular and critical of patriarchal phase of these writingstended to be nostalgic. But I would say that most Arab-American writershave transcendedthe nostalgic phase. There are a variety of genres presentin their writings;their work is sophisticatedand multi-layered." Although Chalala's optimism and enthusiasm are justified, much work remainsto be done. There is still a paucity of criticism on the first two phases of Arab American literature. Although scholars have studied the crucial role that the Mahjar writers played in modernizingArabic literature,very little work has been done on the role that they played in Arab Americanliterature.This means that key texts like Mikhail Naimy's three-volumeautobiographySab 'un, which contains a wealth of informationon the early Mahjar writers, will need to be translatedinto English. There is a similar lack of criticism on the second phase of Arab American literature.More attentionmust be paid to the subtle and less overt ways in which ethnicity is treatedin these works. One fruitfularea of researchmight involve the study of ethnic humor.Although the thirdphase of this writing has received more attention,most of the critical work has focused on fiction at the expense of poetry.

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Finally, there is an urgentneed for more high-qualityliterary set criticismthatmatchesthe standards by criticssuch as Evelyn AmalAmireh, LisaSuhair and Shakir, Majaj.
Notes 1. See Suleiman's "Introduction" an excellent overview of the three waves of for Arab immigrationto America. 2. Like Rihani, Gibran's first introductionto the Arab world took place in the United States. He first became aware of the romanceassociated with the Middle East throughhis contact with the artisticcommunity in Boston. Jean and Kahlil Gibranargue that this contact caused the young poet to reevaluatehis place in American life: "If American poets sang about the land where he was born, did not his closeness to and reverence for that place confer on him some heretofore unimaginedstature?" (58). Literature" 3. This tactic was also used by Gibran.See Shakir,"Arab-American 4-5. 4. See Shakir,"Arab-American Literature" and "Mother'sMilk"41-45. 5 5. See Shalal-Esa. 6. Abu-Jaberdiscusses this and otherissues in her interviewwith Shalal-Esa. 7. There are no easy answers to these questions. Steven Salaita argues in "Vision"that it is "counterproductive" to include writerswho do not claim (14) any identification with their Arab background, while Majaj argues in "The Hyphenated Author" that "Arab-Americanauthors that on the surface have nothing to do with 'Arab' or 'ethnic' themes may, upon closer examination, reflect the impressof ethnicity"(3). 8. According to Majaj in "The HyphenatedAuthor,"there are two main points of view on this issue, depending upon whether writers see themselves as primarilyArab or primarilyAmerican. The main concern of the formergroup is to preserve its political and culturalattachmentsto the Arab world. As such, it views any dilution of this culturalattachmentas a "betrayalof Arab heritageand hence of Arab-American identity"(3). The lattergroupviews its Arab American identity within "the American frameworkof assimilation and multiculturalism" (3). As such, its members are primarily interested in exploring the Arab Americanimmigrantexperience. 9. For a discussion of feminism in Arab American literature, see Amireh "Publishing,"Darraj "Third World," and Leila Ahmed, A Border Passage, chpts. 10 and 12. Also see the anthologies Food for Our Grandmothers,edited by Kadi; Scheherazade'sLegacy, edited by Darraj;and Going Global, edited by Amireh and Majaj. 10. Nye expresses similar views in her eloquent open letter "To Any Would-Be Terrorist," which was circulatedelectronicallyvia the internetafter the September 1 1thattacks.

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11. See, for example, Elmaz Abinader's "Profile of an Arab Daughter,"Suheir Hammad's"firstwriting since," LawrenceJoseph's Before Our Eyes, and D. H. Melhem's "September11, 2001, World TradeCenter,Aftermath." Works Cited Abdul-Baki,Kathryn.Fields of Fig and Olive: Ameeraand OtherStories of the MiddleEast. ColoradoSprings:Three Continents,1991. -. Ghost Stories:A Palestinian Love Story. Pueblo, CO: Passeggiata,2000. -. Towerof Dreams. ColoradoSprings:Three Continents,1995. Abinader,Elmaz. Childrenof the Roojme.New York:Norton, 1991. -. In the Countryof My Dreams. ... Oakland:Sufi Warrior,1999. -. "Profileof an ArabDaughter."Al Jadid 7.37 (2001): 4-5. Abu-Jaber,Diana.ArabianJazz. New York: Harcourt,1993. -. Crescent.New York:Norton, 2003. -. Interviewwith AndreaShalal-Esa."The Only Response to Silencing ... is to Keep Speaking."Al Jadid 8.39 (2002): 4-6. -. TheLanguage ofBaklava: A Memoir.New York:Anchor, 2006. Ahmed, Leila. A BorderPassage: From Cairo to America-A Woman's Strausand Giroux, 1999. Journey.New York: Farrar, Akash, Munir,and KhaledMattawa,eds. Post-Gibran:Anthologyof New Arab American Writing. New York: SyracuseUP, 1999. Amireh,Amal. "Publishingin the West: Problemsand Prospectsfor Arab Al Women Writers." Jadid 2.10 (1996) <http://www.aljadid.com/ features/0210amireh.html>. Amireh,Amal, and Lisa SuhairMajaj,eds. Going Global: The Transnational Receptionof ThirdWorldWomenWriters.New York: Garland,2000. Badawi, M. M. A CriticalIntroductionto ModernArabic Poetry. Cambridge: CambridgeUP, 1975. -. A ShortHistory of ModernArabic Literature.Oxford:Clarendon,1993. Blatty, William Peter.I'll Tell ThemI RememberYou.New York: Dial, 1960. -. WhichWayto Mecca, Jack? New York:Lancer, 1960. New York:Dial, 1960. Bourjaily,Vance. Confessionsof a Spent Youth. -. TheEnd of My Life. 1947. New York:Dial, 1961. Cachia,Pierre.An Overviewof ModernArabic Literature.Edinburgh: EdinburghUP, 1990. Chalala,Elie. "ArabAmericansAfter September11th: RethinkingIdeas Not Carvedin Stone."Al Jadid 7.36 (2001): 13-14. -. Interview.TheIranian. Dec. 2002 <http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/ 2002/December/Chalala/index.html>. Hayan. TheAlchemist'sDiary. New York:HangingLoose, 2001. Charara, -. TheSadness of Others.Pittsburgh: CarnegieMellon UP, 2006. Darraj,Susan Muaddi,ed. Scheherazade'sLegacy: Arab and ArabAmerican Westport,CT: Praeger,2004. Womenon Writing.

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"ThirdWorld, ThirdWave Feminism(s):The Evolutionof Arab American Feminism."Catchinga Wave.Ed. Rory Dicker and Allison Piepmeier.Boston: Northeastern UP, 2003. 188-205. Gibran,Jean, and Kahlil Gibran.Kahlil Gibran:His Life and World.Edinburgh: Canongate,1991. Gibran,Kahlil. TheEarth Gods. New York:Knopf, 1931. -. TheForerunner:His Parables and Poems. New York: Knopf, 1920. -. Jesus the Son of Man. New York: Knopf, 1928. -. TheMadman:His Parables and Poems. New York: Knopf, 1918. -. TheProphet. New York: Knopf, 1923. -. Sand and Foam. New York: Knopf, 1926. -. The Wanderer: Parables and His Sayings. New York: Knopf, 1932. His Haddad,George. Mt. Lebanonto Vermont: Autobiographyof George Haddad. Rutland,VT: Tuttle, 1916. Halaby,Laila. Westof the Jordan. Boston: Beacon, 2003. Hamid, George A. Circus.New York: Sterling, 1950. Hammad,Suheir.Born Palestinian, Born Black. New York: HarlemRiver, 1996. -. Drops of ThisStory.New York: HarlemRiver, 1996. -. "firstwriting since." ZaaterDiva.New York: Cypher,2005. 98-102. Handal,Nathalie. TheLives of Rain. Northampton, MA: InterlinkBooks, 2005. -. TheNeverfieldPoem. Sausalito:Post-Apollo, 1999. Anthology.Northampton, -, ed. ThePoetry of Arab Women: Contemporary A MA: Interlink,2001. Hawie, Ashad G. TheRainbowEnds. New York: Theo. Gaus' Sons, 1942. Hazo, Samuel. TheHoly Surpriseof Now: Selected and New Poems. Fayetteville: U of ArkansasP, 1996. Byblos, 1971. -. Seascript;A MediterraneanLogbook.Pittsburgh: -. Stills. New York: SyracuseUP, 1998. Jayyusi, Salma Khadra.Trendsand Movementsin ModernArabic Poetry. Vol. 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977. Joseph, Lawrence.Before OurEyes. New York: Farrar, Strausand Giroux, 1993. -. CurriculumVitae.Pittsburgh: of PittsburghP, 1988. U -. Into It: Poems. New York: Farrar, Strausand Giroux,2005. Kadi, Joanna,ed. Food for Our Grandmothers:Writingsby Arab-American and Arab-CanadianFeminists. Boston: South End P, 1994. Kahf, Mohja.E-mailsfrom Scheherazad.Gainesville:UP of Florida,2003. Kaldas,Pauline, and Khaled Mattawa,eds. Dinarzad's Children:An Anthology of Contemporary ArabAmericanFiction. Fayetteville:U of ArkansasP, 2004. Majaj,Lisa Suhair."Arab-Americans the Meaningof Race."Postcolonial and Theoryand the UnitedStates. Ed. AmritjitSingh and Peter Schmidt.Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2000. 320-37. -. "TheHyphenatedAuthor."Al Jadid 5.26 (1999): 3.

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"New Directions:ArabAmericanWritingat Century'sEnd."Post-Gibran: Anthologyof New ArabAmerican Writing.Ed. MunirAkash and Khaled Mattawa.New York: SyracuseUP, 1999. 67-82. -. "Two Worlds Emerging:Arab-American Writingat the Crossroads." Forkroads Spring 1996: 64-80. Marshall,Jack.ArabianNights: Poems. Minneapolis:Coffee House, 1986. -. From Baghdad to Brooklyn:Growingup in a Jewish-ArabicFamily in America:A Memoir.Minneapolis:Coffee House, 2005. Midcentury Mattawa,Khaled.Ismaili Eclipse. Riverdale-on-Hudson: Sheep Meadows, 1995. -. Zodiac of Echoes. Keene, NY: Ausable, 2003. Melhem, D. H. Conversationswith a Stonemason.San Francisco:Ikon, 2003. -. New YorkPoems. New York: SyracuseUP, 2005. -. Rest in Love. New York: Dovetail, 1975. -. "September11, 2001, WorldTradeCenter,Aftermath." <http://users.tellurian.net/wisewomensweb/PoetsUSA/Gioseffipms.html>. Melhem, D. H., and Laila Diab, eds. A DifferentPath: An Anthologyof the Radius ofArab American Writers.Detroit:Ridgeway P, 2000. Naff, Alixa. BecomingAmerican:TheEarly Arab Immigrant Experience. Carbondale: SouthernIllinois UP, 1985. Naimy, Mikhail. TheBook ofMirdad, A Lighthouseand a Haven. Beirut: Sader's Library,1948. -. Kahlil Gibran:A Biography.New York: PhilosophicalLibrary,1950. Trans.MikhailNaimy. New York: PhilosophicalLibrary,1985. -. Trans.Memoirsof a VagrantSoul; or, Pitted Face. By MikhailNaimy. New York:PhilosophicalLibrary,1952. -. Sab'un. Hikayat 'Umr.3 vols. Beirut:Sader, 1959-60. -. Trans. "Till WeMeet... "and TwelveOtherStories. By MikhailNaimy. Bangalore:The IndianInstituteof World Culture,1957. Naimy, Nadeem. MikhailNaimy:An Introduction.Beirut:AmericanU of Beirut, 1967. Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varietiesof Gazelle: Poems of the MiddleEast. New York: Greenwillow,2002. -. Habibi. New York: Aladdin, 1999. -. Never in a Hurry:Essays on People and Places. Columbia:U of South CarolinaP, 1966. -. Sitti's Secrets. New York: Aladdin, 1997. -. TheSpace Between OurFootsteps: Poems and Paintingsfrom the Middle East. New York: Simon and Schuster,1998. 12 -. "To Any Would-Be Terrorist." Dec. 2006 <http://godlas.myweb.uga. edu/shihabnye.html>. -. WordsUnderthe Words:Selected Poems. Portland,OR: EighthMountain, 1995. Orfalea,Gregory.The Capitalof Solitude. GreenfieldCenter,NY: Greenfield Review, 1988.

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ed. Wrapping GrapeLeaves: A Sheaf of Contemporary the Arab-American Poets. Washington,DC: American-Arab Committee, Anti-discrimination 1982. Orfalea,Gregory,and SharifElmusa,eds. GrapeLeaves: A CenturyofArabAmericanPoetry. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1988. Ostle, R. C. "The RomanticPoets."ModernArabic Literature.Ed. M. M. Badawi. The CambridgeHistoryof ArabicLiterature. Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1992. 82-131. Rihani,Ameen. ArabianPeak and Desert. Travelsin Al-Yaman.1930. Delmar, NY: Caravan,1983. -. Aroundthe Coasts ofArabia. London:Constable, 1930. -. TheBook ofKhalid. 1911. Beirut:RihaniHouse, 1973. -. A Chantof Mystics and OtherPoems. New York:JamesT. White and Co., 1921. Beirut:RihaniHouse, 1970. Co., 1920. -. TheDescent of Bolshevism.Boston: Stratford -. Makerof ModernArabia. New York:HoughtonMifflin, 1928. -. Myrtleand Myrrh.Boston: GorhamP, 1905. -. ThePath of Vision. 1921. Beirut:RihaniHouse, 1970. -. The QuatrainsofAbu 'l-Ala.New York:Doubleday Page, 1903. Rihbany,AbrahamMitrie.A Far Journey.Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1914. -. TheSyrian Christ.Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1916. Rizk, Salom. Syrian Yankee.GardenCity, NY: Doubleday, 1943. AlJadid 6.32 LiteraryCriticism." Salaita,Steven. "Vision:Arab-American (2000): 14+. Serageldin,Samia. The Cairo House. New York: SyracuseUP, 2000. Literaturesin the New Immigrant Literature." Shakir,Evelyn. "Arab-American UnitedStates. Ed. Alpana SharmaKnippling.Westport,CT: GreenwoodP, 1996. 3-18. -. "ArabMothers,AmericanSons: Women in ArabAmericanAutobiography."MELUS 17.3 (1991-92): 5-15. MELUS 15.4 -. "Mother'sMilk: Women in ArabAmericanAutobiography." (1988): 39-50. Shalal-Esa,Andrea."Arab-American WritersIdentifywith Communitiesof Color."Al Jadid 9.42-43 (2003): 24-26. Simpson, Mona.AnywhereBut Here. New York: Knopf, 1987. -. TheLost Father. New York: Knopf, 1992. Smith, Dinitia. "Arab-American Writers,Uneasy in Two Worlds."New York Times 19 Feb. 2003. Rpt. <http://www.habermas.org/duboisbkl 0.htm>. Suleiman,Michael W. "Arab-Americans the Political Process." The and DevelopmentofArab-AmericanIdentity.Ed. ErnestMcCarus.Ann Arbor:U of Michigan P, 1994. 37-60. -. Introduction. Arabs in America:Building a New Future. Ed. Michael W. Temple UP, 1999. 1-21. Suleiman.Philadelphia: Ward,PatriciaSarrafian.TheBullet Collection. St. Paul: Graywolf,2003. Williams, David. Far Sides of the Only World.Durham,NC: CarolinaWren P, 2004.

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TravelingMercies. Cambridge,MA: Alice James, 1993.

Selected Bibliography of Other Arab American Literature Adnan,Etel. TheArabApocalypse. Sausalito:Post-Apollo, 1989. -. Sitt Marie Rose. Trans.GeorginaKleege. Sausalito:Post-Apollo, 1982. Awad, Joseph. TheNeon Distances. Francestown,NH: Golden Quill P, 1980. -. ShenandoahLong Ago. Richmond,VA: Poet's, 1990. Boullata,Kamal, ed. And Not Surrender:AmericanPoets on Lebanon.WashCulturalFoundation,1982. ington, DC: Arab-American Geha, Joseph. Throughand Through:ToledoStories. St. Paul:Graywolf, 1990. Hamod,H. S. (Sam). Dying Withthe WrongName: New and Selected Poems, 1968-1979. New York:Anthe, 1980. Lalami,Laila. Hope and OtherDangerous Pursuits. ChapelHill: Algonquin, 2005. Mroue,Haas. Beirut Seizures.Berkeley:New Earth,1993. Nassar, Eugene Paul. Windof the Land. Belmont, MA: Association of ArabAmericanUniversity Graduates,1979. Noble, FrancesKhirallah.TheSitue Stories. New York: SyracuseUP, 2000. Rihani,Albert. Whereto Find AmeenRihani:Bibliography.Beirut:Arab Institutefor Researchand Pub., 1979. Turki,Fawaz. TheDisinherited;Journal of a Palestinian Exile. Withan Epilogue, 1974. New York:MonthlyReview, 1974. -. Exile's Return:TheMakingof a Palestinian American.New York:Monthly Review, 1994. New York:Monthly -. Soul in Exile: Lives of a Palestinian Revolutionary. Review, 1988.