Abstract

The American Granddaughter by Iraqi writer Inaam Kachachi explores the concept of diaspora through the experience of Zeina, a young Iraqi woman who grew up in America and returned to Iraq as an interpreter with the US Army. The American Granddaughter deals with the inner conflict the protagonist experiences between her Iraqi identity and American affiliation, allowing her to represent the diaspora experience in all its psychological and cultural complexities. This study focuses on the manner in which The American Granddaughter displays the conflict between the mother country and the exile. Zeina discovers herself torn in terms of her Iraqi roots. That means she struggles to reconcile her link to her grandmother and her new certainty as an American person who works with a foreign army in her mother country. In this paper, the analyses show the effect of war on belonging and identity, demonstrating that Zeina is not just an individual in the diaspora. This narrative falls short of expectations and is typical of many migrants who live in a grey area between a past to which they no longer fully belong and a future that does not give them a full sense of home. Finally, the exploration shows that the narrative highlights the concept of diaspora not only as a geographical