West of Jordan: Gender Exile and Self-identification in the Writing of Layla Halaby

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to examine  the association between individual and collective identities in the current Palestinian women’s  literature in America. By addressing themes  of female individuality, exile and self-identity  as used by the writer, Laila Halaby, one of the prominent current Palestinian American writers, in the novel West of Jordan [1], this article will examine how the writer associates between female individuality and collective identity. It will discuss how Halaby handles the question of association between self-identification and collective identity. This article shows how Halaby’s narrative proves that neither Palestinian collective identity (to reconcile the split vision of the self by reconstructing collective identity), nor a state of betweenness (theorizing a mediate state of being) are relevant to the reality of the Palestinian women in America, and female individual identity maintenance. This article shows that Individual Identity (its main concern is selfhood and individual promotion) is the most appropriate pattern of identity to maintain selfhood and self-esteem.