ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on textual representations of ageing transnational men in the migratory process, specifically from the Arab world to the United States, examining the destabilisation of traditional masculinities from the perspective of Arab-American women writers. The study analyses the men’s challenges and negotiations depicted in stories by contemporary female writers Diana Abu-Jaber, Alia Yunis and Naomi Shihab Nye and focuses on the reconstruction of ageing Arab masculine identities in the United States. The aim is to explore the transnational masculinities of Arab males in the US represented in fiction through the lens of the few existing gerontological empirical studies published about Arab-American immigrants, specifically drawing on the theoretical framework of the convoy model of social relations. The analysis contributes to the discussion of transnational masculinities by considering the ways in which men’s identities become unsettled in their migration, while focusing on the interplay of ageing and affect in the (de)constructions of transnational manhoods.
