Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction -- Seven fault zones and beyond: some methodological considerations. A landscape of seven fault zones -- Beyond the fault zones -- Arabic, self and autoethnography. From collective identity to the self -- Using the fu', marking the self -- Banning code-switching, marking the self -- Conclusion : Arabic, self and autoethnography -- Arabic, self and displacement. Arabic, self and displacement: out of place, between languages -- Language, self and displacement : identity and gender -- Language, war and trauma : from despotism to freedom -- Language, self and globalisation -- Language and self : displacement, trauma and globalization -- Names, identity and conflict. "What's in a name?" -- Personal names : shared values and shared identities -- Personal names, identity and modernization -- Personal names, identity and conflict -- Personal names, identity and the diaspora -- Personal names, identity and socio-political history -- Toponyms, identity and conflict -- Linguistic landscape, identity and modernity -- Code-names, identity and conflict -- Conclusion : names, identity and conflict -- Conclusion.

Arabic, Self, and Identity uses autoethnography, autobiography, and a detailed study of names to investigate the links between conflict and displacement, and between the Self and group identity. In the process it raises questions about trauma and globalization, underscoring the complex roles of language and identity in society. Yasir Suleiman frames his findings against a far-reaching critique of the dominant, correlational approach in Arabic sociolinguitics. He argues that this approach does not sufficiently explore the link between language and the major narratives of identity and conflict in the Middle East. Instead he advocates for combining this approach with qualitative studies that are nevertheless aware of the limits of interpretation and the positionality of the researcher. This combined endeavor, Suleiman says, can generate a richer understanding of the sociopolitical underpinnings of language, and help to bridge the gaps between the various disciplines that converge on language as a field of investigation and analysis. -- Back cover.