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294197

Aspects of multiculturalism in Mohja Kahf's E-mails from Scheherazade.

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Last updated: 28 Dec 2024

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Abstract

Multiculturalism as a term has recently been used to denote the celebration, acknowledgment and promotion of cultural differences. It is fundamentally defined as political and symbolical recognition of minority cultures, histories and traditions. The theory is thoroughly inspired by liberal ideas of human rights and equality. The aim of this paper is to analyse Mohja Kahf's collection E-mails from Scheherazad through the lens of multicultural concepts. Equality, belonging, identity and recognition of differences are key concepts of multiculturalism which will be explored through Kahf's depiction of her Arab roots and heritage. A reading of Kahf's poems will investigate how the poet negotiates Arab American identity and how she envisions multicultural societies. In her poetry, she re-conceptualizes the Arab identity, particularly the Arab Muslim woman in a pursuit to change western negative orientalist attitudes. Achieving knowledge construction about the Arab identity, illuminating its major qualities with representations that balance wronged stereotypical images, building bridges of cross-cultural understanding, reducing prejudices against Arabs and initiating dialogue between cultures are main concerns in Kahf's poetic vision. Kahf's poetry deals with ethnicity, gender and cultural diversity in America and hence it is representative of multicultural ideals particularly acceptance of difference, shared humanity and connectedness of cultures.

DOI

10.21608/ejlt.2023.180209.1023

Keywords

Multiculturalism, Recognition of Difference, Mohja Kahf, Arab American identity, cultural diversity

Authors

First Name

Nabila

Last Name

Ahmed

MiddleName

Rashad

Affiliation

Helwan university

Email

rashadnabila40@gmail.com

City

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Orcid

-

Volume

10

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

39397

Issue Date

2023-01-01

Receive Date

2022-12-24

Publish Date

2023-01-01

Page Start

28

Page End

58

Online ISSN

2314-6699

Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/article_294197.html

Detail API

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=294197

Order

294,197

Type

Research in linguistic and literary studies

Type Code

2,266

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Linguistics and Translation

Publication Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Aspects of multiculturalism in Mohja Kahf's E-mails from Scheherazade.

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Article

Created At

28 Dec 2024