Hannah's Project Proposal
Firstly, I’d like to focus on the Hemingway-esque expatriate, the self-imposed exile of many artists through the years. I think this group’s travels as compared to Hend’s travels in Brooklyn Heights from the perspective of a modern artist moving from country to country and how the travel of an Egyptian woman with little money and a child compares to artists on their own or with their lovers.
Secondly, I’d like to map the movement of the ‘political’ expatriates that seem centered around the world wars and a few before. I’m really interested in comparing this to A Border Passage since it seems that book deals with a more political motivation on the author/traveler’s part.
Finally, I’d like to map out the modern expatriate’s movement, particularly centered around Middle Eastern countries and the Arab World. I know Tiller of Waters has a job narrative to it but I’m not quite sure if it will match with the current expatriate ‘crisis’ that many countries in the region are facing. As this is the most recent, and potentially most politically charged, form of expatriates seen to date, I think it could definitely be related to the political nature of all the texts in some way or another.
Many places on the historical side of things overlap. Paris, Germany, and the United States are very important through the first two types of expatriates. Ireland and Poland both also show up several times. As far as the modern expatriate, there are many different areas I’d like to look at, particularly with Saudi Arabia as a center since many modern expatriates seem to have a route there at some point. The novels also look at the United States as well as Egypt and Beirut.
Hopefully, this map will help the class realize the reach of the term expatriate and how it can be integrated in everything we’ve seen. It was certainly a shock for me at first to realize how prevalent the term was throughout history and even today. I also hope the maps show the really amazing trend, that I hopefully uncover more thoroughly after reading the books, of each text aligning or being reminiscent of some form of expatriate, which was also a really interesting find for me personally.