114 Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures Vol. 4 No. 2 December 2020 Identity Dilemma and the Lack of Reciprocity in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent ☉ Fatima Zohra Gasmi, Bo Cao University of 8 Mai 1945, Hunan Normal University Abstract: Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent astutely interweaves the search for identity into a romantic love story. This article approaches it using a new identity concept found in Amin Maalouf’s work In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong ( Les identités meurtrières ). It investigates the identity dilemma that the female protagonist, Sirine, faces while living in-between her conflicting Arab and American allegiances. It argues that her struggle is amplified by the lack of what Maalouf calls “reciprocity.” Sirine finds it too difficult to assimilate into the mainstream Arab culture. Arabs around her do not accept her, and she reacts by upholding her Arab identity. This article maintains that even small acts of reciprocity can reduce her identity dilemma. Keywords: Diana Abu-Jaber, Crescent , Amin Maalouf, Identity, Reciprocity CLC: I712 Document Code:A Article ID: 2096-4374(2020)02-0114-08 Introduction Diana Abu-Jaber (1959- ) was born in Syracuse, New York, of a Jordanian father and an American mother, who often moved the family between the U.S. and Jordan. She is the author of four novels: Arabian Jazz , Crescent , Origin , and Birds of Paradise , of which only the last was translated into Chinese《天堂鸟》by Yaping Chen ( 陈亚萍 ) in 2013. She also wrote a memoir, The Language of Baklava (2005). Her works revolve around similar themes such as food, hybridity, and identity, which are most fully represented in Crescent . This novel has been discussed in terms of culinary art (Mercer and Storm 33-46; Limpár 249-268; Mehta 203-235; Careillo 313-338; Laouyene 586-601; Tabačková 67-76), storytelling and postmodernist techniques (Yousef, “Diana” 228-244; Salaita, Awad; Zbidi 661-671), ethnic, cultural, and political inclination (Fadda-Conrey 187-205; Yousef, “The Goals” 205-222; Gana 197-216; Asiri 21-29; Masood 997-1015), and of course identity (Michael 313-331). To provide a fresh perspective into the protagonists’ identity predicament, this essay observes how Sirine responds to her entourage’s attempts to reduce her “composite identity” into one “ingredient” employing the identity conceptualization deduced from Maalouf’s In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong . Maalouf (1949- ) was a Christian Lebanese-French journalist, scholar, novelist, and author of