Cultural Belonging and Identity Crisis in Habayeb’s Before the Queen Falls Asleep: A Palestinian Diaspora Study

Abstract

This study explores the themes of cultural belonging and identity crisis in Habayeb’s Before the Queen Falls Asleep within the broader context of the Palestinian diaspora. The novel offers a poignant narrative that captures the emotional and psychological struggles of displaced Palestinians, especially women, grappling with fragmented identities across generational and geographical boundaries. The protagonist’s inner turmoil reflects the collective experience of exilic displacement, inherited memory, and a persistent longing for a homeland that exists more vividly in imagination than in physical reality. Habayeb weaves personal memory with national trauma, exposing how exile reshapes individual and communal identities, leading to a deep sense of unbelonging in both the host and the homeland. The crisis of identity is exacerbated by a cultural disconnect, where characters often feel alienated from the cultures they inhabit, yet struggle to fully connect with the Palestinian identity that has been shaped by nostalgia, loss, and resistance. Through a diasporic lens, the study analyzes how Habayeb articulates the tension between memory and present reality, tradition and modernity, and the persistent search for self in a world marked by exile. This paper ultimately argues that the novel powerfully illustrates the emotional costs of diaspora through the lens of cultural displacement.