Cross-cultural Romance: A Dialogic Evolution of Arab-Western Relations in Contemporary Arab Anglophone Women’s Literature

The current global landscape is characterised by transnationalism and diaspora, concepts that wield tools such as dialogism, heteroglossia, and the ““Unfinalisability”” of the self. In response to these transformative forces, a significant cohort of contemporary Arab Anglophone writers has embraced a dialogic paradigm. This article explores the artistic portrayal of Arab-Western relations through the literary works of two Arab Anglophone women writers: Ahdaf Soueif and Leila Aboulela. Living in the West and writing in English, these authors advocate, although unproblematically, a trans-cultural dialogue that seeks to harmonise shared cultural values across the divide between these two worlds. As migratory intermediaries and translators of culture, they adeptly negotiate the intricacies of intercultural interaction via cross-cultural romantic entanglements. Drawing on Bakhtin’s dialogic paradigm and Soueif’s Mezzaterra, the article further posits that these narratives intentionally foreground dialogic perspectives while subverting the dichotomous tendencies inherent in monolithic nationalism. Ultimately, these authors promote diligent endeavours that critically respond to cultural representations in the context of Arab-Western relations.