The Fourth Space as an Escape from Colliding Cultures in Mohja Kahf's "The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf"

The main axis of Arab American literature is its portrayal of the experiences that Arab Americans go through in their daily life inside and outside the USA. Taking Mohja Kahf’s novel as a literary sample, this paper examines the extent to which triple consciousness, faith development, and existentialist thought forge Khadra’s perplexity in understanding her identity – she struggles to explore her true self in two different cultural realms i.e., Mecca and Indianapolis. By employing points of view and criticism of well-known scholars and critics such as Erik Erikson, Henri Tajfel and James Fowler, this paper concludes that Khadra, as an escape from her psychological unrest in two incompatible cultures, locates herself in what I call as the fourth space.