- Sayed Kashua
Sayed Kashua (1975- ) is an Arab author and journalist from Tira, Israel.
Biography
Sayed Kashua was born in Tira in the Triangle region of
Israel . In 1990, he was accepted to a prestigious boarding school inJerusalem . [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/world/middleeast/07kashua.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all Straddling Cultures, Irreverently, in Life and Art - New York Times ] ] He studied sociology and philosophy at theHebrew University of Jerusalem . Kashua lives with his wife and daughter inBeit Safafa , an Arab neighborhood in southern Jerusalem.Literary career
Kashua writes satiric columns in Hebrew for "
Haaretz " newspaper and a local Jerusalem weekly, "HaIr ". In a humorous, tongue-in-cheek style, Kashua addresses the problems faced by Arabs in Israel, caught between two worlds. [http://bostonreview.net/BR31.5/lalami.html Native Speaker Lalami, Laila. Boston Review.]While Kashua's two books have been praised by the Israeli press they have not been well-received by literary critics in the Arab world. [Kayyal, Mahmoud: “Arabs Dancing in a New Light of Arabesques': Minor Hebrew Works of Palestinian Authors in the Eyes of Critics;' Middle Eastern Literatures (2008) p.47]
Television
"Avoda Aravit" ("Arab Labor"), a satiric sitcom written by Kashua is broadcast on Israel television. A large part of the dialogue is in Arabic, with Hebrew subtitles. The show is about a young Arab couple, Amjad and Bushra, and their young daughter, who live in an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Amjad is a journalist working for a Hebrew newspaper (much like Haaretz) who desperately seeks to assimilate into the prevailing Israeli Jewish cultural milieu with mixed and hilarious results. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/world/middleeast/07kashua.html?ref=television Straddling Cultures, Irreverently, in Life and Art - New York Times ] ] The show holds a mirror up to the racism and ignorance on both sides of the ethnic divide and has been compared with
All in the Family .Published works
*"Dancing Arabs" (2002)
*"Let it be Morning" (2006)References
* [http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/buechermarkt/388269/ Pulled through from fear] Sigrid Brinkmann, Germany Radio.
2005-06-21
* [http://www.amazon.com/s?search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Sayed%20Kashua Books › "Sayed Kashua"]
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