Othering and disillusionment in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans

Abstract

ABSTRACT The question of identity (re)constructions across different locations is central to diasporic literature. Voluntary or forced exile, diasporic characters participate in different cultural identity processes, attempting, for example, to break through solid walls of excolonial stereotypes, superiority and subjugation constructs. In this context, Laila Lalami casts light on the overshadowed and silenced stories of the displaced migrant in seminal works as Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Secret Son, the Moor’s Account and The Other Americans. The Other Americans recounts the story of a Moroccan migrant family whose hope of an American dream comes to break on the shores of a reality of being ‘Othered’; relegated to a lower status by the white-dominated society. In this vein, this paper seeks to study how these issues are represented in relation to the articulation and negotiation of ‘new identities’ and how disillusioned they become in a host society which is not less barren and mirage-like than the Mojave Desert itself.