Place-Based Identity in Selected Works of Suad Amiry and Naomi Shihab Nye

Abstract

Summary of the Study This thesis attempts to examine and analyse the role of place in defining a person’s identity and how the idea of home and displacement affects humans in general. Studies that deal with place and identity as separate entities reflect the intersection of multiple disciplines and they mostly highlight the importance of place in the construction of individuals’ existence, specifically the marginalized or the occupied, and their identity. Another aim of the thesis is filling the gap concerning the relation between place and identity and its development following the historical background of this concept as no clear theory of place is setup till this day. It also seeks to fill the gap in the area of Arab women writers’, especially Palestinian women writers, and their relationship to place. The thesis focuses on two Palestinian writers: Suad Amiry and Naomi Shihab Nye and argues that their relationship to place, in selected works from their writings, presents a two dimensional analysis of Arab women writers’ working their identities and reaching a partial reconciliation by relating to certain places.