“Things” and the Diasporic Self in Mahjoub’s The Carrier and Hammad’s The Parisian

Abstract

The present article examines the impact of “things” on the self-concept of diasporic individuals in Anglophone Arab novelists Jamal Mahjoub’s The Carrier (1998) and Isabella Hammad’s The Parisian (2019). Particularly, it highlights how certain “things” help the protagonist in each novel to perceive himself and to define his life mission. For this, the current study is situated within the theoretical frameworks of “Thing Theory” and theories of self-concept. It argues that certain “things” are important factors in the development of each protagonist’s identity and his understanding of his own self. Not only do these “things” influence the protagonist’s character and substantially form his/her identity, but they also give the reader clues about the transformations that these protagonists undergo during their experiences in diaspora. By tracing the relationship between the protagonists and certain “things” in each novel, one may form a better idea of how diasporic experiences affect and inform an individual’s self-concept. Keywords: Jamal Mahjoub; Isabella Hammad; Thing Theory; Diaspora; Self-concept.