Cultural Assimilation and the Quest for Self in Ayad Akhtar's American Dervish | ||
| مجلة کلية الآداب بقنا | ||
| Article 9, Volume 34, Issue 69, October 2025, Pages 88-121 PDF (593.74 K) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/qarts.2025.392607.2243 | ||
| Author | ||
| عبدالنعيم ابراهيم عوض العارف* | ||
| مدرس بقسم اللغة الإنجليزية وآدابها كلية الآداب – جامعة جنوب الوادي | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This study approaches the themes of cultural assimilation and the negotiation of identity in Ayad Akhtar's American Dervish, locating the work in the vast discourse of diasporic literature. Within the contexts of modern literary and cultural studies, the fictions that Muslim-Americans have produced have become salient due to their ability to illuminate the complicated dynamics between religion, ethnicity, and national identity. However, despite the widening body of literature on the work of Akhtar, there is an ontological void in analyses that explore how internalized cultural contradictions shape the self-conception. Filling this void, the current paper investigates how the logic of American Dervish reveals the psychological and existential tensions that result from the demands of conforming to a secular, Western world. Employing the techniques of qualitative literary analysis based on the close reading paradigm, the study utilizes identity studies to identify the moment of strain between conventional religious orthodoxy and the exigencies of modern America experienced by the protagonist. The analysis emphasizes the way the work challenges both religious orthodoxy and secular liberalism and, in the process, reveals the important disorientation experienced by diasporans between conflicting value systems. Accordingly, the paper suggests that assimilation gets framed as an ontological problem, probing the coherence of selfhood and faith and breaking it apart. Here, the work makes an essential intervention in the debates on belonging, faith, and the very constitution of the self, offering an insightful critique of the constitution of the self within multicultural terms. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Cultural Assimilation; Identity Construction; Diaspora; Religious Influence; Belonging | ||
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