Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Refugees from Nazi-Occupied Europe in British Overseas Territories
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2020) 246-261
Keywords:
Haas, Willy,
;
Jewish refugees
;
Exiles' writings History and criticism
;
Motion picture industry
;
India Politics and government 1919-1947
;
India Civilization
;
Influence
Abstract:
Using sources like letters, essays, autobiography, film manuscripts and secondary literature, this article aims to reconstruct moments from Willy Haas’ years of exile in India (1939–1947) relevant to the salient research positions in the field of German exile literature. Further, through a focus on socio-political and cultural themes in a comparative framework, it attempts to gain insight into two divergent film aesthetics, theatre aesthetics, notions of time, work, mythology and the ethos of life. When Willy Haas, a Prague-born, German-speaking exile came from the Third Reich to India, it was in the midst of a mass scale freedom movement, under the leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, against the British colonial regime. Haas admired Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violent passive resistance and empathised with the struggle for freedom. By describing Haas’ exile in India in terms of world historical conjunctures, his lived experience as a scriptwriter and essayist and his cultural output, this article seeks to add detail to the new geographies of exile migration, the liminal state of the exile in a colonial setting and the possibility of the specific place of exile bringing about a change in aesthetic perceptions transcending Eurocentric perceptions of the Orient.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004399532_014
URL:
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