Elias Khoury

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Elias Khoury (2016)

Elias Khoury ( Arabic إلياس خوري Ilyas Churi , DMG Ilyās Ḫūrī ; * July 12, 1948 in Beirut ) is a Lebanese writer and journalist . He published numerous novels in Arabic that have been translated into several languages. Today he lives and works in Beirut.

Life

Khoury grew up in Beirut in the predominantly Christian district of Aschrafiyya as the son of a family of Greek Orthodox origins. As a young man he trained in Fatah and fought actively in the Palestinian resistance until 1976. At the same time he studied history and sociology at the Université Libanaise in Beirut from 1968 and graduated from 1970 to 1973 with a diploma from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris . Between 1973 and 1979 he was employed at the PLO Research Center in Beirut. During this time he began to publish the first essays and novels. In the 1980s he lectured in Arabic literature for one year at Columbia University in New York and at various high schools in Beirut. In 2003 he was visiting professor for Arabic literature and comparative literature at New York University . Since 1992, Khoury has been the editor of the cultural supplement of the Beirut daily newspaper An-Nahar . From 1993 to 1998 he was director of the Masrah Bayrut experimental theater . He is deputy director of the annual Ayloul Festival for experimental, multimedia art in Beirut. In 2010/11 Elias Khoury was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

In his novels, plays and essays, Khoury expresses himself critically on socio-political issues of the time and on Middle East politics. He is considered a committed intellectual who relentlessly comments on the politics of the USA and Israel, but also those of certain Arab states. His novels are often about war-related emigration and the loss of home and identity. He was awarded the Palestine Prize in 1998 for his best-known work Bab as-sams (The Gate to the Sun), which tells of the collective uprooting of the Palestinian people. This novel was filmed in 2004 by Yousry Nasrallah in a co-production with ARTE .

bibliography

Novels

  • To alaqat ad-da'ira. 1975.
  • Ad-djebel as-saghir. 1977. (The little mountain)
  • Al-wudjuh al-bayda. 1981. (The white faces)
  • Abwab al-madina. 1981. (Engl. Gates of City. 1993)
  • Rihlat Gandhi as-saghir. 1989. (Engl. The Journey of Little Gandhi. 1994)
  • Mamlakat al-ghuraba. 1993. ( The Kingdom of Foreigners. Translated by Laila Chammaa. 1998, ISBN 3-86093-177-6 )
  • Magma al-asrar. 1994. ( The mysterious letter, translated by Laila Chammaa. 2000, ISBN 3-406-46608-7 )
  • Bab asch-shams. 1998. ( The gate to the sun. Translated by Laila Chammaa. 2004, ISBN 3-608-93645-9 )
  • Ra'ihat as-sabun. 2000. ( The scent of the soap )
  • Yalu. 2002. ( Yalo. Translated by Leila Chamaa. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42224-3 )
  • Ka'annaha ná'ima. 2007. ( As if she was sleeping. Translated by Leila Chamaa. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-42332-5 )

Radio plays

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Khoury, Elias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lebanese writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Beirut