Voicing the diaspora: styling the Arab–American binary through the micro-symbolic textures of macro-ideological meaning in The Inheritance of E xile

What the paper says

Purpose This study examines how symbolic lexis—kinship terms, names, ritual objects, food vocabulary, and untranslated Arabic expressions—functions as a micro-stylistic mechanism for encoding cultural identity and diasporic memory in Susan Muaddi Darraj's “Nadia” and “Siham.” It further investigates how these same lexical resources construct the macro-level Arab–American ideological binary that structures the protagonists' lived experience. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a qualitative stylistic methodology grounded in manual, text-driven analysis. Symbolic lexis is operationalized as the core unit of inquiry. All culturally marked lexical items were identified, categorized, and interpreted through feminist stylistics, critical discourse analysis, and theories of indexicality. The analysis links micro-level lexical choices to macro-level ideological meanings, showing how everyday vocabulary encodes cultural affiliation, distance, and negotiation. Findings The analysis reveals that symbolic lexis is central to Darraj's construction of diasporic subjectivity. At the micro level, kinship terms such as “habibti” and “Siti,” genealogical naming practices, food rituals, and material objects encode affective memory, intergenerational authority, and cultural continuity. At the macro level, lexical contrasts—“non-Arab,” “al-Amerikani,” bargaining versus fixed price, stone homes versus hardwood floors, olive trees versus autumn leaves—construct the Arab–American binary as a lived ideological framework. Symbolic lexis thus mediates belonging, displacement, and cultural tension. Social implications By illustrating how diasporic identity is linguistically enacted, the study offers insight into the cultural negotiations faced by Arab American communities and highlights the role of everyday language in shaping perceptions of self, place, and belonging. Originality/value The study advances a symbolic-lexis-based stylistic model that links micro-level lexical texture to macro-level ideological structure, offering a novel methodological contribution to stylistics and Arab American literary studies and addressing a gap in existing discourse-focused scholarship.