{"id":4299,"date":"2013-02-10T21:18:47","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T02:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=4299"},"modified":"2024-08-12T11:30:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:30:45","slug":"naim-kattam","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/naim-kattam\/","title":{"rendered":"Na\u00efm Kattan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Na\u00efm Kattan was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1928.\u00a0 For the small Jewish community of which he was part, life became very difficult as state sponsored harassment increased, culminating in the post 1951 emigration of many of the country’s Jews.\u00a0 Kattan made his way to Montreal in 1954 and although Arabic is his first language, he has written, according to his own count, more than thirty books in French.\u00a0 Few of these have been translated into English.\u00a0 His fictional, semi-biographical trilogy (Adieu, Babylon; Les fruits arrach\u00e9s; La fianc\u00e9e promise<\/em>) tells of a Jewish man’s childhood in Baghdad, university education in Paris, and establishment in Ottawa and Montreal following his arrival in Canada in 1954. Only the first two volumes have been translated into English.\u00a0 Kattan is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and a Chevalier of the L\u00e9gion d’honneur. In recent years Kattan\u00a0 divided his time between Montreal and Paris. He died on July 2, 2021 in Paris.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Celebrations<\/h3>\n

Translated by Antonio D’Alfonso.
\nTranslation of Anniversaire<\/em>.
\nVictoria, BC: Ekstasis Editions, 2019.<\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n

A Syrian writer living in Montreal, Ren\u00e9 Shems is also a specialist of Canadian history. After participating in a celebration organized in his honor, Shems decides to send letters to friends and colleagues. He also writers to his ex-wife, his daughter living in the U.S.A., and a past lover. Through this letters the reader meets a successful man. And yet once the letters sent, Shems questions his own success and works. Celebrations<\/em> contains wonderful pages on culture shock, but also interesting thoughts on love, friendship, urban living, people, and cultures. Naim Kattan has produced a marvelous work of fiction and ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction (Autobiographical)<\/h3>\n

Farewell, Babylon<\/h3>\n

Translated by Sheila Fischman.
\nTranslation of Adieu, Babylon<\/em>.
\nToronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1976.
\nPS9571 .A88 A7313 <\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Farida<\/h3>\n

Translated by Norman Cornett & Antonio D’Alfonso.
\nTranslation of Farida<\/em>.
\nMontreal: Guernica Editions, 2015.
\nOn order<\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n

In this classic love story featuring passion, jealousy and murder, and set in pre-World War II Iraq, Farida, a Jewish woman and cabaret singer, struggles for survival and her freedom in a world on the edge of upheaval and on which falls the dark shadow of war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/div>\n
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Fiction (Short stories)<\/h3>\n

The Neighbour and Other Stories<\/h3>\n

Translated by Judith Madley and Patricia Claxton.
\nToronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1982.
\n“Stories … selected from Dans le de\u0301sert … and La traverse\u0301e.”
\nPS9571 .A88 N4 1982<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n

NA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction (Autobiographical)<\/h3>\n

Paris Interlude<\/h3>\n

Translated by Sheila Fischman.
\nTranslation of Les fruits arrach\u00e9s<\/em>.
\nToronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979.<\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n

NA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Non-Fiction<\/h3>\n

Reality and Theatre<\/h3>\n

Translated by Alan Brown.
\nTranslation of Le<\/em> R\u00e9el et le th\u00e9\u00e2tral<\/i>.
\nToronto: Anansi, 1972.
\nCB427 .K3813<\/a><\/p>\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n

1971 Prix France-Canada (winner)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

\n
\"Reading<\/a><\/div>\n
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Anthology<\/h3>\n

Reading Writers Reading: Canadian Authors’ Reflections<\/h3>\n

Z1039 .A87 R43 2006<\/a><\/p>\n

Kattan, Na\u00efm. “La lecture.” In Reading Writers Reading: Canadian Authors’ Reflections<\/em>. Danielle Schaub, photographer and ed. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2006, 124-125.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Selected Criticism and Interpretation<\/h3>\n

Dahab, F. Elizabeth. “From Baghdad to Montr\u00e9al via Paris: Naim Kattan and His Multiple Reality.”In her Voices of Exile in Contemporary Francophone Canadian Literature<\/em>. Lanhan: Lexington Books, 2009.
\nPS9089.5.I5 D35 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

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Greenstein, Michael. “Iraqu\u00e9bec: Na\u00efm Kattan’s Trans-mimetic Diaspora.” In Textualizing the Immigrant Experience in Contemporary Quebec<\/em>, eds. Susan Ireland and Patrice J. Proulx. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, 117-126.
\nPQ3917 .Q3 T49 2004<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jama, Sophie. Les temps du nomade: itin\u00e9raire d’un \u00e9crivain: entretiens avec Na\u00efm Kattan<\/em>. Montr\u00e9al : Liber, 2005.
\nPS9571.A872 Z467 2005<\/a><\/p>\n

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Miska, John. Ethnic and Native Canadian Literature : A Bibliography<\/em>. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, 204-206.
\nPS8089.5.I6 Z76 1990<\/a><\/p>\n

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Xavier, Subhagnana. “The Economy of the Migrant Text: Theorizing a French Literature of Migration”.” Ph.D. diss., The University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2007.
\nAvailable from Proquest Dissertations and Theses<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Links<\/h3>\n

Profile<\/a> by Jacques Cotnam in the Canadian Encyclopedia<\/em> online<\/p>\n

Publisher Ekstasis Editions<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher Guernica Editions<\/a><\/p>\n

Obituary<\/a> by Janice Arnold from the Canadian Jewish News<\/em>, July 6, 2021<\/p>\n

Memorial<\/a> by Pierre-Etienne Caza in L’actualit\u00e9s UQAM<\/em>, July 6, 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Na\u00efm Kattan was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1928.\u00a0 For the small Jewish community of which he was part, life became very difficult as state sponsored harassment increased, culminating in the post 1951 emigration of many of the country’s Jews.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4299","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18637,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4299\/revisions\/18637"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}