The author's initial is given on the journal's index page and in the recommended citation but not at the top of the essay.
There isn't an abstract so I'll just copy in the first page and a bit, which explain the approach of the essay:
In Ayesha at Last, Uzma Jalaluddin represents diasporic identity conflicts through strategic narrative techniques, including cultural conformity, generational tension, and reimagined traditions that illustrate how her Muslim Canadian protagonists actively create hybrid identities while navigating pressures from both their traditional community and the host society. This representation challenges simplistic notions of cultural assimilation by showing identity creation as a continuous process of negotiation rather than a binary choice between cultures.
This paper will integrate theoretical frameworks from cultural studies scholars Stuart Hall and Lisa Lowe alongside romance genre analysis from Pamela Regis to examine how Jalaluddin’s novel, Ayesha at Last, portrays diasporic identity conflicts. Rather than presenting these cultural tensions as merely problematic, this paper argues that Jalaluddin depicts them as generative sites of negotiation through which her Muslim Canadian protagonists actively construct innovative pathways to love and belonging that transcend cultural binaries. The analysis will reveal how characters navigate the complexities of diaspora not just as victims of cultural displacement but as real people who strategically manage various cultural expectations to forge meaningful relationships and community connections on their own terms.
Exploring diaspora through romance literature offers significant value in cultivating empathy and understanding while combating hegemonic thinking. Romance literature accomplishes this work precisely because of its accessibility to general audiences, unlike dense academic texts that remain in scholarly circles. This accessibility allows romance fiction to bridge the gap between academic theory and public understanding, fostering critical thinking that can interrupt the cyclical nature of majority groups creating and then condemning the very issues they perceive within minority communities. By humanizing diaspora experiences and the people within them, romance literature cuts through political narratives to present individual characters as complex human beings rather than conjectured social problems. (41-42)
The author's initial is given on the journal's index page and in the recommended citation but not at the top of the essay.
There isn't an abstract so I'll just copy in the first page and a bit, which explain the approach of the essay: