New trajectories in Postcolonial narratives: The Predicament of the Immigrant in the Host Country in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans

Abstract

During the last few decades Postcolonial studies have evolved to a considerable extent. The abundance of Postcolonial writings and rising polemical debates among Postcolonial writers, scholars and critics are benchmarks that marked the evolve­ment of Postcolonialism in the realm of intelligencia. Among the most prominent and innovative key – figures of Postcolonial and diaspora writers is Laila Lalami. This paper seeks to explore new routings in Postcolonial writings. Therefore, the dynamic shift from locality to cosmopolitanism inscribed within Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019) will be discussed. How the migrant’s moving identity is manifested in the Western host country through the prism of the Self and Other dynamics will be given much emphasis. Methodologically speaking, Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism will be used as a tool to discuss the polyphony of the novel; by the same token, this study draws upon Postcolonial theory; concepts such as displacement, moving identities, and Homi Bhabha’s third space will be used as tools of analysis.