Identity Process and the Challenges of Immigration: Reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013)

Ahmed, Yasmine Nabil

doi:10.21608/misj.2023.189238.1041

Identity Process and the Challenges of Immigration: Reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Yasmine Nabil Ahmed

English Department, The British University in Egypt

10.21608/misj.2023.189238.1041

Abstract

Identity is a complex notion that entails negotiations between different spaces: the person and his inner self, the person and his social group, and the person and the global politics. Not only is the individual affected by his inner characteristics, but he is also affected by the way he is categorized and perceived by others and by the macro global power relations that define his status in the globe. Third world subjects face different social changes in the new millennium that could threaten their identity process; at the top of these social changes is immigration whether voluntary or involuntary. This paper aims at exploring the threats that obstruct the identity process of African subjects who immigrated to metropolitan spaces as presented in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013). The paper is an attempt to read and interpret Adichie’s novel through the lens of Glynis Breakwell’s identity process theory, a social psychological theory that examines the dynamics of individuals’ identities towards social change. Thus, the paper explores the challenges African immigrants face and the coping strategies they adopt to cope with such challenges.

Keywords

References

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