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Title INTIMATE MOBILITIES AND ACCULTURATION IN TRANSNATIONAL SPACE: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED WESTERN WOMEN’S MEMOIRS OF MARRIAGE AND MIGRATION

Author(s) Zaryab Khalid

Abstract Defining features of the contemporary world are the mobility/movement of the bodies from one location to the other and the intercultural interactions among people from different locals, nations, races, and ethnicities, which have transpired inter-faith, inter-race, inter-cultural and transnational marriages. Among these are Western women who are marrying Eastern men, migrating to Eastern spaces and interacting with Eastern cultures, which is why this study aims to understand the female Western immigrant’s migration and acculturation experiences that go unregistered and affords insight into this growing phenomenon of Western women’s migrations into Eastern countries and marriages with Eastern men. Substantiated by the concepts of Intimate Mobilities and Mobile Intimacies by Christian Groes and Nadine T. Fernandez, and Acculturation Strategies by John W. Berry, this study analyzes three Western women’s memoirs of marriage and migration, Phyllis Chesler’s An American Bride in Kabul (2013), Marguerite van Geldermalsen’s Married to a Bedouin (2006), and Betty Mahmoody’s Not Without My Daughter (1987), to determine the factors that influence their mobilities to Eastern locations and the strategies they use to interact with Eastern cultures. The study concludes that Western women’s mobilities/migrations to Eastern countries are motivated by their intimacies/emotions, and these mobilities generate transnational spaces wherein they negotiate their Western and Eastern cultures and identities through different Acculturation Strategies. All three women are assimilated into Eastern cultures to a varying degree, with Chesler partially assimilated, Mahmoody between partially and completely assimilated, and Geldermalsen completely assimilated. As a consequence of their intimate mobilities, the transnational spaces and Eastern spaces transform their Western identities into Eastern identities as Afghan wife, Iranian wife, and a Bedouin woman.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2022-09-26

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