Full Description
Approaching the Middle East through the lens of Diaspora Studies, the 11 detailed case studies in this volume explore the experiences of different diasporic communities in and of the region, and look at the changing conceptions and practice of diaspora in the modern Middle East. They show how concepts central to diaspora such as 'homeland', 'host state', 'exile', 'longing', 'memory' and 'return' have been deconstructed and reinstated with new meaning through each complex diasporic experience. They also examine how different groups have struggled to claim and negotiate a space for themselves in the Middle East, and the ways in which these efforts have been aided and hampered by the historical, social, legal, political, economic, colonial and post-colonial specificities of the region. In situating these different communities within their own narratives - of conflict, resistance, war, genocide, persecution, displacement, migration - these studies stress both the common elements of diaspora but also their individual specificity in a way that challenges, complements and at times subverts the dominant nationalist historiography of the region.
Contents
Introduction
Anthony Gorman and Sossie Kasbarian
Part I. Post-Ottoman Reconfigurations
1. 'Model Citizens or a fifth column?'
Haris Theodorelis-Rigas
2. Ottoman-Local Elites as Diaspora Communities
Ehud R. Toledano
3. Ossetians in Ottoman and Republican Turkey
Georgy Chochiev
4. The Italians of Egypt
Anthony Gorman
Part II. Exile, 'Return' and Resistance
5. Subversive Tourism? Diaspora Armenians visiting Turkey
Zeynep Turan and Anny Bakalian
6. A Story of Unfulfilled Desires
Maria Holt
Part III: Community in Host States - Establishing new homes
7. The 'Others' Within: Armenians in Cyprus
Sossie Kasbarian
8. Worthy lives in unworthy conditions
May Farah
Part IV: New Diasporas
9. Malayalee Migrants and Translocal Kerala Politics in the Gulf
M.H. Ilias
10. 'I need hope, but all my hopes need money'
Elisa Pasucci
11. Home in Lebanese Diaspora Literature
Jumana Bayeh
