The Arab Canadian Identity. Interculturalism, Trauma, and Identity Metamorphosis in Cockroach and Sabah

Abstract

This essay compares Rawi Hage’s novel about the struggle against cultural integration to Rubba Nadda’s film about cultural hybridity. I argue that Hage’s protagonist falls victim to cultural in-betweenness, thereby evoking his cockroach metamorphosis. This is due to the effects of migrant trauma on the unnamed narrator and his lack of an empathetic listener. In Nadda’s film, Souhaire is equipped with empathetic listeners and is therefore able to cope with her inbetweenness and mitigate its traumatic effects. Sabah, her 40 year old aunt, learns from Souhaire and transforms her in-betweenness into cultural hybridity. In addition to tracing both stories’ depictions of metamorphic identity transformations, this essay dedicates itself to evaluating and analysing the effects of migrant trauma on first and second generation Arab Canadians.