Room Number: TRS 1-075
Join the Meeting: https://ryerson.zoom.us/j/93571254499?pwd=RUlOcnJldmtvYjNXNDhBaEMrK1Mydz09
Chair: Ruta Šlapkauskaité (Vilnius U)
Speakers:
Silvia Anastasijevic (Goethe U), “The Other Within: Humorous Transgressions in The Infidel“
Nuha Askar (Goethe U), “Transgressive Modes of Border Crossing”
Asli Ergün (Goethe U), “Disrupting Divisions & Transgressing Boundaries in Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani“
Michelle Stork (Goethe U), “Narrating Overlapping Geographies and Border-Crossings in the Transcultural Road Novel”
Paper Summaries:
Silvia Anastasijevic (Goethe U), “The Other Within: Humorous Transgressions in The Infidel”
The Infidel, which revolves around a Muslim man whose discovery of his Jewish heritage triggers an identity crisis, transcends the dualism between the self and Other that is often present in ethnic humor by showing how ethnic or cultural identities and communities are not given, but learned, performed, and assumed.
Nuha Askar (Goethe U), “Transgressive Modes of Broder Crossing”
This paper argues that Rawi Hage’s Beirut Hellfire Society (2018) presents uncommon modes of border crossing that go beyond theodicy and obscenity. Sexual transgression and cremation can also be performative vehicles to undo both the pedagogy (Bhabha) of the nation and the ingrained ethnoreligious bigotries, which represent internal metaphorical borders.
Asli Ergün (Goethe U), “Disrupting Divisions & Transgressing Boundaries in Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani”
The enduring coexistence of non-homogenous communities and evolving ordinariness of transcultural identities in Londonstani set new imaginaries for contemporary societies. As multi-directional transgressions of cultural boundaries are encouraged, both, a constant engagement with one’s own sense of belonging is required while simultaneously opportunities for identity formation are vastly extended.
Michelle Stork (Goethe U), “Narrating Overlapping Geographies and Border-Crossings in the Transcultural Road Novel”
This paper reads Jamal Mahjoub’s 2021 The Fugitives as an example of a border-crossing road narrative. The analysis explores how the road trip narrative negotiates overlapping geographies and the transgression of cultural boundaries, since the novel imaginatively approximates and compares the U.S. and the Sudan.