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"A Study Guide for Diana Abu-Jaber's ""Arabian Jazz"""
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"A Study Guide for Diana Abu-Jaber's ""Arabian Jazz"", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs."
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"A Study Guide for Diana Abu-Jaber's ""Arabian Jazz""" - Gale
18
A Study Guide for Diana Abu-Jaber’s Arabian Jazz
Diana Abu-Jaber
1993
Introduction
Diana Abu-Jaber's Arabian Jazz, published in 1993, is one of the first contemporary Arab American novels to reach mainstream audiences. Abu-Jaber was uniquely positioned to understand both Jordanian and American culture, having lived for many years in both countries and with one parent from each. Arabian Jazz, her debut, was hailed for bringing everyday Arab American culture to a broader public with a need for greater understanding of Middle Eastern peoples. Acts of terrorism had been in the news, including the 1993 bombing at the base of the World Trade Center by Arab nationals. In light of prejudicial attitudes toward citizens like Abu-Jaber and her family, the novel served to humanize Arab Americans. Yet there was controversy surrounding the novel, because in her lighthearted portrayal of outsized personalities, some Arabic readers feared she had produced demeaning stereotypes.
With both comedic and tragic aspects coloring the story, Arabian Jazz focuses on what happens when twenty-nine-year-old Jemorah is forced to make decisions about the direction of her life after her matchmaking aunts start applying serious familial pressure. Jem is also still coming to terms with the death of her mother during her childhood, with help from her sister, Melvina, and the support of her jazz-drumming father, Matussem. The novel won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award.
Author Biography
Diana Ghassan Abu-Jaber was born in Syracuse, New York, on November 5, 1959, to a Jordanian immigrant father and an American mother of Irish and German descent. Her father was an animated storyteller, leaving his daughter imaginatively immersed in the Arabic fairy-tale worlds he brought to life. Her mother was a teacher, while her father's professional career included a period as a supervisor at a hospital. This led to frightening experiences when employees beneath him went on strike, as the family would receive calls from confrontational people shouting racial epithets over the phone. Even those who worked alongside Abu-Jaber's father would sometimes make casually prejudiced comments to him. The family did find much to appreciate about America, such as Thanksgiving, a holiday Abu-Jaber loved for the way her family could put an Arabic twist on traditional American dishes. She has credited food and storytelling—of which her uncles were also fond—as the two foundational cultural elements of her childhood. Another American artifact the family appreciated was the movie Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which made the Middle East look glamorous.
When Abu-Jaber was seven, her father took the family to live in Jordan for two years, after which they alternated periods in New York and Jordan. In an interview with Robin E. Field published in MELUS, Abu-Jaber related that her father's traditional, patriarchal background meant that she was raised in a highly restrictive environment, essentially being told:
You are not to go out, you are not to be wild, you are not to be loud, you must be very respectful and always ask permission. Everything is circumscribed and everything is watched. The idea is that
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