Farewell, Babylon

Farewell, Babylon

Author: Naïm Kattan

Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781567923360

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In "Farewell, Babylon," Naim Kattan takes readers into the heart of exotic mid-19th-century Baghdad's then-teeming Jewish community. Jews had lived in Iraq for 25 centuries, long before the time of Christ or Muhammad, but anti-Semitism and nationalism were on the rise. In this beautifully written memoir, a young boy comes of age and describes his discoveries -- of work, literature, patriotism, the joys of lazy Sundays swimming in the Tigris. He also talks eloquently of his greatest discovery: women and love. This is a story of roots and exile, of thirst for life and life's experiences. However, more than that it is a tribute to a lost world, an ancient Eastern city in which Iraq's Kurds, Bedouins, Sunnis, Shiites, Chaldeans, Catholics, and Jews all lived together in a rough, rewarding sort of harmony.


Voices of Exile in Contemporary Canadian Francophone Literature

Voices of Exile in Contemporary Canadian Francophone Literature

Author: Elizabeth Dahab

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-12

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 073911879X

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Ever since Bessie Smith's powerful voice conspired with the "race records" industry to make her a star in the 1920s, African American writers have memorialized the sounds and theorized the politics of black women's singing. In Black Resonance, Emily J. Lordi analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Focusing on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s, Black Resonance reveals a musical-literary tradition in which singers and writers, faced with similar challenges and harboring similar aims, developed comparable expressive techniques. Drawing together such seemingly disparate works as Bessie Smith's blues and Richard Wright's neglected film of Native Son, Mahalia Jackson's gospel music and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, each chapter pairs one writer with one singer to crystallize the artistic practice they share: lyricism, sincerity, understatement, haunting, and the creation of a signature voice. In the process, Lordi demonstrates that popular female singers are not passive muses with raw, natural, or ineffable talent. Rather, they are experimental artists who innovate black expressive possibilities right alongside their literary peers. The first study of black music and literature to centralize the music of black women, Black Resonance offers new ways of reading and hearing some of the twentieth century's most beloved and challenging voices.


Poetics of Contemporary Narratives in the Arabic Diaspora

Poetics of Contemporary Narratives in the Arabic Diaspora

Author: F. Elizabeth Dahab

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2024-03-15

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1793627940

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The Poetics of Contemporary Narratives in the Arabic Diaspora presents a captivating exploration of the rich tapestry of Middle Eastern diasporic literature, spanning the landscapes of Canada and France. With eloquent prose, the author guides readers on an enthralling journey through the intricate interplay of themes, styles, tropes, and sociohistorical contexts. This monograph breathes life into an array of mesmerizing texts authored by luminaries including Wajdi Mouawad, Khaled Osman, Rawi Hage, Denis Villeneuve, and Soha Béchara whose literary roots span Lebanon and Switzerland. Through meticulous analysis and thoughtful reflection, this work unveils the profound resonance of these writers' voices across borders and cultures.


Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures

Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures

Author: Anita Norich

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2016-04-28

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 0472121677

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This collection of essays brings to Jewish Language Studies the conceptual frameworks that have become increasingly important to Jewish Studies more generally: transnationalism, multiculturalism, globalization, hybrid cultures, multilingualism, and interlingual contexts. Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures collects work from prominent scholars in the field, bringing world literary and linguistic perspectives to generate distinctively new historical, cultural, theoretical, and scientific approaches to this topic of ongoing interest. Chapters of this edited volume consider from multiple angles the cultural politics of myths, fantasies, and anxieties of linguistic multiplicity in the history, cultures, folkways, and politics of global Jewry. Methodological range is as important to this project as linguistic range. Thus, in addition to approaches that highlight influence, borrowings, or acculturation, the volume represents those that highlight syncretism, the material conditions of Jewish life, and comparatist perspectives.


A Popular History of the United States, from the First Discovery of the Western Hemisphere by the Northmen, to the End of the Civil War

A Popular History of the United States, from the First Discovery of the Western Hemisphere by the Northmen, to the End of the Civil War

Author: William Cullen Bryant

Publisher:

Published: 1888

Total Pages: 708

ISBN-13:

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