The Search for Identity in the Works of Samīr Naqqāsh

Geula Elimelekh examines how Samīr Naqqāsh, uprooted from Baghdad in the mass emigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel, struggled with alienation and an unresolved search for identity. Focusing on the collections I, They and Ambivalence (1978) and The Day the World Became Pregnant and Miscarried (1980), she shows how his stories set a cherished Iraqi childhood against his difficult life in Israel.