"Dust to Cleanse Themselves," A Survivor's Ethos: Diasporic Disidentifications in Zeitoun

Extending Jose Muñoz's analysis of disidentification, this essay argues that Dave Eggers's Zeitoun reflects a particular ethos of survival that is both decolonized and disidentified. By revising the master media narrative of Hurricane Katrina as an unfortunate act of God and FEMA's bad timing, Eggers critiques dominant practices of race, class, gender, nation, and crisis processing to address silences at the core of the narrative.