Focal Interest
Focal Interest
AI Summary of Peer-Reviewed Research

This page presents an AI-generated summary of a published research paper. The original authors did not write or review this article. [See full disclosure ↓]

Publishing process signals: MODERATE — reflects the venue and review process. — venue and review process.

Islam and identity in Leila Aboulela’s Elsewhere, Home

A woman wearing a blue hijab and mustard-colored top sits indoors reading an open book, photographed from behind at a medium shot with natural light visible in the background.
Research area:Arts and HumanitiesLiterature and Literary TheoryDiaspora, migration, transnational identity

What the study found

The article concludes that Islam and identity are in constant flow, and that they require major revisions under rapidly changing realities and conditions.

Why the authors say this matters

The authors suggest that cultural identity is not enough to capture the full complexity of subjectivity, and that the study of Islam needs to account for postmodern realities. They also indicate that mobility, exile, and displacement shape ongoing processes of subjectivity reconstruction.

What the researchers tested

The article offers a qualitative analysis of Leila Aboulela's short story collection Elsewhere, Home (2019). It uses close reading and an eclectic theoretical framework, drawing on Stuart Hall's concept of cultural identification and Mohammed Arkoun's insights on Islam.

What worked and what didn't

The close reading is presented as showing the limits of cultural identity for explaining entangled aspects of subjectivity. It also points to the limits of traditional Islamic discourse in defining the Muslim individual in postmodern contexts, while emphasizing that identity and Islam remain in flux.

What to keep in mind

The abstract does not describe empirical data beyond the literary corpus, and it does not list specific limitations. The claims are limited to the article's reading of Elsewhere, Home and the theoretical frame it uses.

Key points

  • The article concludes that Islam and identity are in constant flow.
  • It argues that cultural identity is inadequate for capturing the complexity of subjectivity.
  • The study examines Leila Aboulela's Elsewhere, Home through close reading.
  • Stuart Hall's cultural identification and Mohammed Arkoun's views on Islam frame the analysis.
  • The abstract does not provide specific limitations beyond the study's scope.

Disclosure

Research title:
Islam and identity in Leila Aboulela’s Elsewhere, Home
Authors:
Yassine Hamdoune
Publication date:
2026-01-29
DOI:
10.58851/africania.1740893
OpenAlex record:
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AI provenance: This post was generated by OpenAI. The original authors did not write or review this post.

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