Resistant assimilation and hometactics as decolonial practices : the stories of Leilah and Ibrahim in The Orange Trees of Baghdad

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

I approach life writing as one of the most prominent forms of microhistory narratives that questions the grand narratives of history produced internationally and locally. Focusing on a transnational Iraqi background woman writer, I argue that lived-experience narratives, despite their contradictions and the politics of publication, which has placed them into the category of “misery narratives,” are still epistemically value-laden and need to be carefully and empathetically read. I draw on feminist phenomenology and use an intersectional methodology to study Leilah Nadir’s The Orange Trees of Baghdad (2014), which mostly reflects on the post-2003 invasion of Iraq, from the perspective of a half Iraqi, half British woman who has never been to Iraq but perceives of Iraq as homeland. Focusing on multiple voices in this memoir, I show how three different generations of an Iraqi family practice homemaking and create a sense of belonging to “home” before, during, and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I study the intersections of homeland, identity, and politics, using Orange Trees of Baghdad as a good example of second-generation migrant life writing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Migrant in Arab Literature: Displacement, Self-Discovery and Nostalgia
EditorsMartina Censi, Maria E. Paniconi
Place of PublicationU.K.
PublisherRoutledge
Pages83-102
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9780429027338
ISBN (Print)9780367135881
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

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