Fear of Intimacy in Rabih Alameddine’s I, The Divine

Authors

  • Ikram LECHEHEB

Keywords:

Rabih Alameddine; I, The Divine; Sigmund Freud; Psychology; Trauma; Fear of Intimacy.

Abstract

The paper examines how the Lebanese American novelist Rabih Alameddine in I, The Divine (2002) shows the psychology of hybrid subject in Diaspora. Through creating a fictional space, the author sheds light on how Sarah suffers from fear of intimacy due to a combination of past traumatic experiences: The Lebanese Civil War, the rape scene, separation from her mother. Through a close reading of Alameddine’s novel, the study does not only stress how fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, and fear of low self- esteem intertwine to form a fear of intimacy in Sarah’s emotional relations, but it also highlights how the protagonist unconsciously avoids attachment as a defense mechanism employing Freud’s ideas.

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Published

2020-01-09

How to Cite

LECHEHEB, I. (2020). Fear of Intimacy in Rabih Alameddine’s I, The Divine. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS), 5(1). https://journal-repository.com/index.php/ijels/article/view/1597