Narratives of Resistance and Counter-Hegemony in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans: Polyphony, Intersectionality, and Hidden Transcripts

This article analyzes Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans as a diasporic counter-narrative that highlights voices historically marginalized within the prevailing American cultural discourse. Drawing on Edward Said’s theory of Otherness and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, alongside Antonio Gramsci’s notion of cultural hegemony and James C. Scott’s theory of hidden transcripts, the analysis frames Lalami’s novel within a wider context of Arab-American writing as a space of resistance. The Other Americans disrupts conventional narratives of belonging, identity, and justice by emphasizing viewpoints influenced by racial, religious, and socio-economic marginalization. The paper argues that Lalami constructs a polyphonic narrative framework that challenges singular representations of the “American experience.” The novel reveals the flaws in the dominant myth of the United States as an inclusive melting pot through its variety of voices. Through Said’s framework, the novel exposes the mechanisms by which Arab and Muslim identities are constructed as cultural “Others,” while Crenshaw’s intersectionality clarifies how gender, race, and religion interact to shape layered diasporic experiences. Scott’s “hidden transcripts” manifest in Lalami’s depiction of private mourning, intergenerational memory, and implicit critique, through which she uncovers the political significance inherent in human narratives. The Other Americans challenges cultural hegemony and reasserts narrative authority for diasporic agency by shedding light on the marginalized subjectivities. The study illustrates how Lalami’s work redefines the American literary canon by affirming the validity of marginalized perspectives, hence converting diasporic fiction into a kind of cultural and political action. Consequently, the book serves as both a medium for storytelling and a mechanism of resistance, illuminating the experiences of marginalized Americans.