The Arab Diaspora (Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies) Book

The Arab Diaspora includes chapters that range in subject matter from a meditation on trans-national literature, to an investigation of the Iraqi Jewish Diaspora in the United States of America. Uniting these chapters is the overriding leitmotiv of Diaspora with its multifarious notes of "otherness", "strangeness", "exile", "dispossession" and indeed, "yearning".

While much has been written down the ages on the Jewish Diaspora, there are far fewer studies of the Arab situation. This volume therefore aims to contribute to the study of the plethora of the Arab Diasporic expressions, which range from literary texts such as novels, short stories and poetry, to the various artistic expressions such as music, dance and painting, to testimonies voiced through various media channels such as film, documentary, and the internet.

The Arab Diaspora attempts to explore the fluidity, and pain, of boundaries and exile; Diaspora cannot eschew nostalgia and pain. The main scope of the book embraces the triple, sometimes interlocking-foci of the theoretical, the exilic and the literary. The Arab Diaspora is essential reading for those with interests in Arabic & Middle East studies, and cultural studies.