Spring 2019 NELC/Humanities Scholars Lecture Series
Each semester, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, in partnership with the OSU Humanities Scholars Program, hosts a lecture series on topics of broad interest to students and the OSU community. The Spring 2019 Lecture Series will include talks scheduled for March 20, April 2, and April 4.
Contemporary Arabic Literature of Forced Migration - Professor Johanna Sellman - Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
In the past two decades we have seen the emergence of a prominent literature of forced migration in Arabic. These novels, short stories, plays, and poems have increasingly foregrounded the perspectives of refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants. As a whole, these literary narratives are often deeply engaged with re-writing the modernist notions of exile or manfathat were dominant in Arabic literature, especially in the latter half of the 20th century, and also provide new perspectives within the well-established genre of travel literature. This talk will survey some of the trends in contemporary Arabic literature of forced migration and also pose some theoretical and ethical questions about our own reading practices and ways of engaging these topics.
