The Concept of Double Diaspora in Sami Michael's Refuge and Naim Kattan's Farewell, Babylon

• Published in: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East
• Main Author: Schwartz, Stephanie Tara
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Duke University Press 2010
• Subjects: Arab Diaspora: Arts in Displacement; Babylon; sami
• Online Access: http://cssaame.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/92; https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201x-2009-054

Drawing on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's philosophy of the concept, James Clifford's theory of diaspora, and Ella Shohat's work on Mizrahim, this essay examines the problematic relationships among nations, territory, and sensations of belonging. First, double diaspora is developed as a concept by which to think through conflicted affiliations to multiple homelands created through the dispersion of Jewish ethnicities, emphasizing the movement through territory as an infinite process. Second, this concept is explored through the literature of two diasporic Arab Jewish writers, Sami Michael and Naim Kattan.