Asian and Arab Diaspora in the Arts

(4 Credits)

Do 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 about tell us about their culture, history and traditions. 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. As a starting point, the course offers historical grounding for the various Asian and Arab migration histories globally; and continually explores what is Asianness / Arabness including recurring terms and themes such namely identity, home, memory and so forth.