Arab Refugee Literature
New Poetics and Perspectives
The turn of the 21st century has witnessed the greatest displacement of peoples since World War II. Of the almost 70 million refugees today wandering the world in search of safety and survival, about 15% are Arabs. In addition, wars and internal conflicts have caused the displacement of millions of Arabs inside their own countries.
The topic of the 14th EURAMAL conference will be dedicated to Arabic literature produced by/about refugees and displaced populations with a focus on the period since the First Gulf War in 1990 to the present day.
Examples of Questions to Consider
- How new experiences of forced movements and displacements (Iraq, Syria and Yemen, for instance) are voiced in the literature
- How themes and poetics that reflect these experiences differ from the refugee literature produced in previous decades, e.g. the Palestinian refugee experience; the Lebanese civil war
- How new places of writing and settlement inside the Middle East and in new countries of exile are reflected in the literature and inflect our understanding of these texts
- What role the poetics of refugee life plays in countering media representation and attracting international attention
- How writers articulate the differences between the experiences of women and men refugees and displaced populations
Thematic sub-panels might include but are not limited to
- The relationship between literature produced in nation of origin and that in country of asylum
- States of exception: refugees in context of Street/ camp life; assimilation and acculturation; refugees vs. inhospitable host communities
- The contribution of Arab refugee literature to human rights discourses
- Refugee experiences by nation: Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian etc.
- Linguistic choice and challenges in refugee poetry, prose and drama
- Formal experimentation and transformations of genres (novel and related prose genres; poetry; drama and performative arts; graphic literature; cinema)
- The quest for identity and generational conflict in refugee narratives (novels, short stories, memoirs etc.)
- Comparative approaches within Arabic literary production and/ or with other refugee literary expressions
Suggested Background Reading
- Agamben, Giogio (2005). State of Exception. University of Chicago Press.
<<https://altexploit.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/giorgio-agamben-kevin-attell-state-of-exception-university-of-chicago-press-2005.pdf>>
- Arendt, Hannah (1973). The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt Brace.
<<https://www.azioniparallele.it/images/materiali/Totalitarianism.pdf>>
- Berg, Nancy (1996). Exile from Exile: Israeli Writers from Iraq.State University of New York Press.
- Butler, Judith (2009). Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? Verso.
<<https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4098884/mod_resource/content/1/Butler%20%282009%29%20Precarious%20life%20-%20grievable%20life.pdf>>
- Farrier, David (2011). Postcolonial Asylum: Seeking Sanctuary before the Law. Liverpool University Press.
- Hassan, Wail S. (2012). Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab American and Arab British Literature. New York, Oxford University Press.
- Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018). America's Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins. Stanford University Press.
<<https://dl1.cuni.cz/pluginfile.php/489490/mod_resource/content/1/Marcia%20C.%20Inhorn-America%E2%80%99s%20Arab%20Refugees_%20Vulnerability%20and%20Health%20on%20the%20Margins-Stanford%20University%20Press%20%282018%29.pdf>>
- Nyman, Jopi (2017). “Refugee(s) Writing: Displacement in contemporary Narratives of Forced Migration.” In: Displacement, Memory, and Travel in Contemporary Migrant Writing. Brill.
- Said, Edward (2000). Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Harvard University Press.
<<http://www.mcrg.ac.in/RLS_Migration/Reading_List/Module_A/65.Said,%20Edward,%20Reflections_on_Exile_and_Other_Essay(BookFi).pdf>>
- Shohat, Ella (2006). Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices. Duke University Press.
- Yaqub, Nadia (2018). Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution. Texas University Press.
Guests of Honour
The EURAMAL Board suggests to invite Shahla Ujayli and Sulayman Al Bassam.