Led by
David Ponet
About
This Chevrutah will examine the themes of home and exile in the world through the lens of Hannah Arendt, Jean Amery, Edward Said, and others. Jean Amery, an Auschwitz survivor, asks “How much home does a person need” which forces us to think about the nature of home and exile and to ask ourselves whether we can feel at home in a world characterized by Auschwitz, Darfur, Gaza, Ukraine and all the rest. Arendt navigates the home/exile dialectic in numerous ways, whether by reporting on the ‘banality of evil’ or reflecting on the ineliminable forces of plurality and natality that characterize the human condition. The Palestinan American intellectual Edward Said wrote about the “essential association between exile and nationalism” and asked “What is there worth saving and holding on to between the extremes of exile on the one hand, and the often bloody-minded affirmations of nationalism on the other? Do nationalism and exile have any intrinsic attributes? Are they simply two conflicting varieties of paranoia?” Through a selection of texts we will consider the meaning of home, exile, and the place of diaspora.
Dates
Oct. 21, Nov. 4, Nov. 18, Dec. 2 @ 8 PM