St. John's University St. John's Scholar Theses and Dissertations 2021 JOURNEYS THROUGH HOME AND EXILE: PALESTINIAN AUTOBIOGRPAHIC WRITING Laila Shikaki Saint John's University, Jamaica New York Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations Recommended Citation Shikaki, Laila, "JOURNEYS THROUGH HOME AND EXILE: PALESTINIAN AUTOBIOGRPAHIC WRITING" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 251. https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/251 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of St. John's Scholar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. JOURNEYS THROUGH HOME AND EXILE: PALESTINIAN AUTOBIOGRAPHIC WRITING A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY to the faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH of ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES at ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY New York by Laila Shikaki Date Submitted ____________ Date Approved______________ ______________________ _________________________ Laila Shikaki Dohra Ahmad © Copyright by Laila Shikaki 2021 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT JOURNEYS THROUGH HOME AND EXILE: PALESTINIAN AUTOBIOGRAPHIC WRITING Laila Shikaki This dissertation analyzes Palestinian autobiographical writing that discusses homeland, exile, and homesickness, with a focus on an intergenerational understandings of Palestine, both as an idea and as a physical place. It concentrates on the personal writing of Palestinians inside and outside of Palestine, written in Arabic and in English, and uses feminism and postcolonialism, especially the works of scholars from the Middle East, as its theoretical base. This necessity for writing and showcasing the personal, presented in the autobiographies themselves and my own analysis of them, comes from the need to defy the occupation, and the reshaping and renaming of Palestine.