War Trauma and Religious Struggle in Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin

Abstract

Arab American literature is a new field that opens the doors for researchers to investigate about certain problems that occur in the Arab world. The present study basically aims at discussing war trauma and religious struggle in Susan Abulhawa‘s Mornings in Jenin (2010). It is based on two major literary approaches. The first is the postcolonial approach that follows Homi Bhabha‘s theory of Hybridity, to show how the Israeli attacks affect the religious identity of Abulhuja‘s family, and Edward Said‘s theory of Orientalism that is employed to depict how the protagonist is fully assimilated within the US Society and creates a new transcultural forms as a result of colonization. The second is the psychoanalytic approach that is used to analyze and investigate how the Israeli attacks affect the psychological state of Dalia and Amal, following LaCapra‘s notion of mourning and melancholia. The conclusion of this research reveals how Susan Abulhawa shows the impact of the war on Palestinians‘ personal lives, religious identity, and even their mental states.