Race, Gender, and Migration in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah and Firoozeh Dumas's Funny in Farsi

• In Event: 66.089 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 13 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 66.089-7 - Literature as a Lens to the Future: Depictions of Education and Teaching in Children's and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse the intersectionality of race, gender and migration in Adichie's Americanah and Dumas’ Funny in Farsi from non-Caucasian women’s perspective. We frame our analysis based on intersectionality, a theoretical framework which suggests forms of social stratification such as class, race, and gender do not exist as a separate entity. Rather, they manifest themselves as complexly interwoven “vectors of oppression and privilege” (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2017) to form and shape the identity of individuals’ lives and world views. Based on close reading of these novels, we conclude that these writers challenge and provide unique narratives of color, race and migrants’ experience. They also critique the lack of knowledge about migrants and their being.

Authors

• Ashenafi Alemu Aboye, The University of British Columbia

• Marjan Abdolahi, The University of British Columbia