The exploration of the doubleness of belonging in Naim Kattan’s "Farewell Babylon"

Abstract

This paper studies the origin of Jewish existence in Iraq by examining Farewell Babylon, written by Naim Kattan, a Jewish Iraqi writer who lives in Canada. In past decades, Jewish communities moved from one location to another as a result of displacement and emigration, thus the Jewish diasporic movements created new territories. This paper explores the sense of doubleness of belonging by investigating a Jewish diaspora . The investigation studies the relationship between home and neighbours in Kattan’s text which focuses on the concepts of belonging, the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other.’ The study of the relationship between Jewish identity and Arab identity in Iraq permits us a wide knowledge of the concept of belonging.