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Copyright of Acta Scientiarum: Language & Culture is the property of Universidade Estadual de Maringa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that dress is not a mere choice an individual makes; rather, it metonymizes almost every aspect of one's identity. Through a critical analysis of Arab British novelists Fadia Faqir's (2014) Willow Trees Don't Weep and Leila Aboulela's (2010) Lyrics Alley, the paper accentuates the skillful employment of dress in these novels and highlights its different implications. It also brings to light the strong relationship between the main characters and their choice of dress. In addition, this study draws on different theories of dress as an interdisciplinary subject in sociology, psychology, and cultural studies. The paper cites textual evidence which focuses on the different implications of dress and shows how these authors have used dress deliberately to comment on important social and political issues in their homelands and/in diaspora. Furthermore, it concentrates on these sartorial episodes to show that the identity construction of the main characters in these novels intricately intertwines with socioeconomic, political, cultural, religious, and psychological circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]