Asian & Arab Diaspora in Literature & Film

Catalog description

Does the Turkish German filmmaker Fatih Akin, the Lebanese Brazilian novelist Milton Hatoum, the Japanese Peruvian poet José Watanabe, the Singaporean Australian writer Kim Cheng Boey, and the Tunisian Swedish novelist Jonas Hassen Khemiri have anything in common? In an increasingly multicultural, multilingual, transnational yet increasingly divided world, what insights do the works of these architects of the imagination offer to narrowly defined strata of Eastern culture? How do they add to the ongoing dialogue between East and West—on cultural translation, migration, the refugee crisis, conflict and love? How do they help us pose fundamental questions? This course is a laboratory for the exploration of major cinematic and literary oeuvres by the Asian and Arab diaspora living in cosmopolitan cities worldwide: Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, the Scandinavian capitals (Europe and the United Kingdom); Buenos Aires, Brazil, Chile, Mexico (Latin America); Montreal, New York, Los Angeles (North America). Each week we explore a global urban space and those creating there. As a starting historical point, the course examines their migration or exile, and the current cultural context they are creating in. Central to this class is exploring the diversity and complexity of their aesthetics and stylistics, the unique artistic voyage they take us on, the ways their creative productions address social issues, and the richness and intricacies of these societies. In our cross-disciplinary and cross-border conversations, we also examine how urban life and the cityscape create imaginative spaces, and the unique language these artists are originating on the page and screen.