Code-Switching and Diasporic Identity in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir and Fawaz Turki’s Exile’s Return: The Making of a Palestinian-American

ABSTRACT

This article examines the cultural and philosophical significance of code switching in the formulation of diasporic identity in Edward Said's Out of Place (1999) and Fawaz Turki's Exile's Return: The Making of a Palestinian-American (1994). It argues that exilic Palestinian writers' use of code-switching pursues various purposes related to the multiplicity and plurality of voices to which they are subject, but it mainly pertains to the ‘exoticization’ of their homeland and ‘nationalizing’ their experiences in exile. Ultimately, the use of code-switching in the memoirs chosen here act as one of the most effective strategies that diasporic writers employ to satisfy a number of important socio-pragmatic and rhetorical functions that are usually expected in exilic writing. These strategies also aim to guide the (mainstream) readers’ affective responses to their work in the way(s) exiled authors believe best suit their rhetorical and national goals.

KEYWORDS:

• code-switching
• diaspora
• nationalism
• Palestinian memoirs
• return

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ahmad Qabaha

Ahmad Qabaha is an assistant professor in Postcolonial, Comparative and American Studies at An-Najah National University in Palestine. He is highly interested in teaching and conducting research on literature and art, as well as examining the various modes and paradigms of literary, historical, socio-political and cultural displacements in the twenty-first century. He is the author of Exile and Expatriation in Modern American and Palestinian Writing (Palgrave, 2018), and the co-editor of Post-millennial Palestine: Memory, Writing, Resistance (Liverpool University Press, 2021). He has also published several articles and book chapters in highly reputable publication companies and journals.

Bilal Hamamra

Bilal Hamamra has a PhD in Early Modern Drama from the University of Lancaster, UK and is currently an associate professor of English literature in the Department of English Language and Literature, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. His research interests are in Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Palestinian literature, women’s writings and gender studies. His articles on language, gender politics, martyrdom and diaspora have appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies, Critical Survey, ANQ, The Explicator, Journal for Cultural Research, Journal of Gender Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Anglia, Middle East Critique, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Interventions, Psychodynamic Practice and Changing English, among others.