Transnationality, Mobile Identity, and Cultural Dislocation in Rabih Alameddine’s I, the Divine (2002)

Abstract

Inspired by diasporic philosophy, conception, and avidity, Anglophone diasporic authors—such as Rabih Alameddine, a prolific Arab American author recognized for his bold yet creative narratives—have foregrounded heterogeneity, post-nationality, and cross-pollination, as approaches to contest essentialist national identifications and reductionist ethnic ideologies. Equally, diaspora literary criticism emphasizes the importance of border crossings and transnational movements, exemplified in diasporic narratives, prompting a re-evaluation of understandings and mindsets. Drawing on this theoretical premise, this article explores themes of traveling identity and transnational belonging, by meticulously analyzing instances from Rabih Alameddine’s I, the Divine (2002). It also unearths personal and cultural dislocation embodied in the protagonist’s disjointed life narrative, the lack of a central plot, and the uncertainty of claiming an irrevocable belief in belonging to a fixed abode. It concludes that the approach of belonging, the novel advocates, aligns with the postmodernist diasporic view, based on revisiting outdated assumptions of cultural identity and welcoming, instead, hybridity and post-ethnicity, which complicates the fixity of home and the pre-givenness of identity.