HAUNTING LEGACY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY CRISIS IN CARRIE ARCOS‟S WE ARE ALL THAT’S LEFT

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the haunting legacy and cultural identity crisis of
one of traumatic victims of Bosnian genocide who migrates to US and those
impacts to the second generation in a young adult novel We Are All That‘s Left by
Carrie Arcos. Deploying Schwab‘s haunting legacies concept, Bhabha‘s  postcolonial concepts of mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridity and Said‘s
orientalism, this study applies descriptive analytical method to analyze how
haunting legacy from Nadja‘s dreadful experience of losing her loved ones and
living in terror of Bosnian conflict affects her cultural identity as well as her
daughter, Zara, a 17th years old Portuguese, England, Bosnian-American as the
second generation who feels confuse and restive about her mother frequent
nightmares and sudden emotional changes, and knows nothing about her  mother‘s past. After encountering terrorist bombing, which is claimed as the act
of ISIS that causes Zara injured and traumatized and Nadja experience a coma,
Zara determines to look for traces of her mother‘s secret and finds old photos and letters in her mother‘s hidden box. The result of the study indicates that Zara, who finally understand better about her mother‘s life, helps her mother to overcome her trauma and ambivalence as a Muslim Bosnian (Bosniak) as well as an American. Nadja eventually holds her new cultural identity as a Bosnian-
American, who still preserves and proud of her cultural roots as Bosniak. As for
Zara, the disclosure of her Bosnian origin helps her to recognize herself and her
mother better. Thus, it contributes to construct her missing cultural identity as a
proud Bosnian-American.
Keywords: Bosnian-American, cultural identity, haunting legacies, postcolonial