Editor: Ken Seigneurie
Crisis and Memory
The Representation of Space in Modern Levantine Narrative
2003
260 p., E-book
49.00 €
Series: Literaturen im Kontext. arabisch – persisch – türkisch
Band 13
ISBN: 9783752000894
ISBN print: 9783895003400
urn:nbn:de:0306-9783752000894-7
Preface
This volume explores the literary representation of social and political crises that have punctuated the second half of the 20th century in the Middle East. From the creation of the state of Israel and its continuing aftermath, to the Suez crisis, to the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan, to the Lebanese Civil War, literature “has been there” but seldom has it been considered a useful lens for understanding the causes and perpetuation of these crises. This collection of essays aims to show how literature can illuminate crises of ethnicity, gender, class, religion, and nation. While the contributors hail from several countries and display a variety of critical approaches, they all focus on the representation of space in narrative.
Contents
Preface
Note on Style and Transliteration
Introduction:
A Survival Aesthetic for Ongoing War
Part One – Modern Crises
Christophe Ippolito (Carlisle, Pennsylvania)
Naguib Mahfouz’s Alexandria: Oblivion and Remembrance
Gil Zehava Hochberg (Los Angeles)
“The Dispossession of Hebrew”:
Anton Shammas’s Arabesques and the Cultural Space of Language
Elisabeth Vauthier (Nantes)
La Ville entre mémoire et rupture dans la littérature syrienne
Samira Aghacy (Beirut)
Domestic Spaces in Lebanese War Fiction: Entrapment or Liberation?
Ken Seigneurie (Beirut)
The Everyday World of War in Hassan Daoud’s House of Mathilde
Paul Starkey (Durham, U.K.)
Crisis and Memory in Rashid al-Daif’s Dear Mr Kawabata:
An Essay in Narrative Disorder
Part Two – Memory and Homeland
Todd Hasak-Lowy (Gainesville, Florida)
Thesis, Antithesis, Thesis:
Nature in S. Yizhar’s War of Independence Stories
Sobhi Boustani (Lille)
Terre natale et paysages urbains dans le roman palestinien:
Essai sur les œuvres de Ghassan Kanafani et Emile Habibi
Juliane Hammer (Washington, D.C.)
A Crisis of Memory:
Homeland and Exile in Contemporary Palestinian Memoirs
Richard van Leeuwen (Amsterdam)
A Journey to Reality: Mourid Barghouti’s I Saw Ramallah
Abir Hamdar (Beirut)
Exile, Home and Identity:
Constructing Alternative Spaces in The Homeland by Hamida Nana
Susanne Enderwitz (Heidelberg)
“Home” in Palestinian Autobiographies
Contributors
Index
Preface
A word is in order about the words in our title. “Levantine” gets the nod over “Middle” or “Near Eastern,” “West Asian” and “Mashrek” as each of these terms encompass too much territory: Turkey, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states are beyond our purview. Bilād al-Shām would work except that it is not generally understood by non-Arabic speakers and therefore would undermine the book’s objective, which is to coax readers into the stream of Levantine literature. Nor, to be sure, is “Levant” the perfect term since it evokes a bygone horizon stretching from Izmir to Alexandria. Yet Levant it is and for a couple of reasons. The term refers not only to the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean, but also allusively to the region’s actual and “orientalized” complexity. Perhaps the following essays devoted to self-representations of the Levant will build new meanings into this old word.
The terms “modern” and “crisis” go together in the Levant as elsewhere, only more so. The fictions and memoirs studied here follow modernity’s ideologies, gender troubles and culture clashes as these intersect with crisis in the Levant. The texts intervene in another of this book’s key concepts, “memory.” Whether they bid to build it, or rescue it from erasure, or save it from opportunistic manipulations, none of the narratives studied here are indifferent to memory. There can be no forgetfulness or escape for this literature.
“Space,” as the ultimate stake in modern Levantine crises and memory, would seem to be the ground upon which everything else rests. Indeed, the contributors to this book have studied how fictions and memoirs relate to spaces, actual and virtual. Yet memory can also trump space, as Lebanese architect and urban planner, Jad Tabet, pointed out in a recent interview about Beirut’s post-war development project:
In one way or another, they wanted to erase the notion that a war had occurred there and erase also the memory of this ancient city that had spawned it. It is a way of beginning from ground zero, a way of reinvoking the myth of the Phoenix who is reborn from its own ashes but who is reborn with all his wings shimmering. But memory resists and memory cannot be erased like that. What is very dangerous is that the return of the repressed can sometimes be catastrophic. We know it in Lebanon and we know it everywhere.
Space is not only gravid with meanings that condition memory; memory too bears meanings that in turn condition spaces. The contributors to this volume focus on this interplay in the final key word in our title, “narrative.” As a way of knowing, narrative (from gnārus, “knowing”) links memory and space. Yet, as mere strings of signs standing for persons, things and events, and leading to a point that is foisted upon the whole, narrative knowledge can never be more than contingent. The august function of narrative and its simultaneous fragility, are reasons why so much energy is lavished on controlling it. This book is devoted to understanding the techniques used to build and inflect narrative in its various forms from memoir and autobiography to the novel.
As for the production process of this book itself, if ever I doubted the weight of social space, this project has made a believer of me. In consulting books of similar scope, I was impressed by the rigorous method Oxford-based Robin Ostle displays in his short foreword to Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East: 1850-1970, and by the firm grasp of history Paris-based Boutros Hallaq displays in his presentation of La Poétique de l’espace dans la littérature arabe moderne. From the other side of the Atlantic, Brown University’s Kamal Abdel-Malek and David C. Jacobson are equally impressive for their sensible, even-handed preface to their Israeli and Palestinian Identities in History and Literature. I confess to having tried to follow the unpoliticized rigor and warmth of these books, but connections between scholarship and political controversy that may be implicit elsewhere are often manifest in Beirut, and this is not always a bad thing. Issues that appear cut-and-dried elsewhere throb with controversy in Beirut. This book is born of such debate and to this extent, it is a child of the city.
Soon after this book was proposed, numerous objections were bruited, among them that it deals with only narrative in Arabic and Hebrew, having left out other Levantine languages such as Armenian and Turkish. Even within its scope, the book also neglects or under-represents numerous areas and authors. These choices reflect the interests of those who chose to contribute, and the result does not pretend to adequately represent the range of narrative in the Levant.
Some have also complained that two Levantine languages are too many when one of them is Hebrew. The most plausible reason for the proposed exclusion of Hebrew is that this literature is in no real sense of the word Levantine inasmuch as it was generally nourished in a European context until the twentieth century. True enough, but the Hebrew language was never simply a European language and East European Jews were arguably never simply Europeans. There exists an irreducible ambivalence of Hebrew-language culture that many who today share mixed origins or diaspora lives can well appreciate. Come to think of it, “ambivalent identity” may be the one thing common to all the Levant. Given that massive Jewish immigration into Palestine is a fact and that the literature of this experience has some relation to Levantine culture, to ignore it would be as intellectually unsound as willful ignorance of the Palestinian experience. Indeed, none less than the dean of Arab commitment, Ghassan Kanafani, also displayed serious interest in Zionist literature in Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature) – and arguably not just “to know the enemy” but to know the truth of a cultural situation, which is also the aim of the present volume.
I would like to thank the following persons and institutions for their support and assistance. Angelika Neuwirth initiated the project and has been a guiding force since its inception. The Lebanese American University in Beirut has offered me a livelihood, and its library has proven far greater than its modest size would suggest. I thank its director, Aida Naaman, and the members of her staff with whom I have had the pleasure of working: Cendrella Abdallah, Sawsan Habre, Aida Hajjar, Bughdana Hajjar, and Kamal Jaroudy. I thank Edgard Weber of the Université de Toulouse – Le Mirail for organizing “Symposium 2000: Les Romanciers libanais d’expression arabe,” a conference whose stimulating atmosphere boosted interest in this project. For their help in desktop page layout, I thank Chirine Abou Chakra, Birgit Embalo, Emma Ghannagé and especially Hussam Harakeh. I also thank Jean Aucagne s.j. for looking over the style in French. Perhaps more than for most such cooperative projects, the contributors to this volume deserve my gratitude for the patience and confidence they have shown from the beginning. I have tried to make the product worthy of their significant investment.
It certainly goes against the spirit of Beirut to thank persons for the intangibles of friendship and stimulating conversation, yet this book owes much to both. It has been my great fortune to count among my friends Rashid al-Daif and John Donahue s.j., both exceptionally knowledgeable in Levantine culture. John has moreover put together the handiest Arabic transliteration software I have encountered. Most of all, I acknowledge the mentorship of Samira Aghacy whose expertise in Arabic literature and whose advice at each step of the way in this project has been invaluable. In her capacity as Chair of Humanities at LAU – Beirut, she has also performed the inestimable feat of providing a propitious environment for research, teaching and writing. Finally, May Semaan Seigneurie has been my most critical and consistently helpful reader.
As extensive as my debts are to these friends and colleagues, on numerous occasions in the production process of this book I have chosen not to take counsel, and therefore the responsibility for the final product is mine alone.
Ken Seigneurie
21 March 2003
Works Cited
Abdel-Malek, Kamal and David C. Jacobson. Israeli and Palestinian Identities in History and Literature. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Hallaq, Boutros, Robin Ostle, and Stefan Wild, eds. La Poétique de l’espace dans la littérature arabe moderne. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2002.
Kanafani, Ghassan. Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature). Beirut: Munazzamat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniyya, Markaz al-Abhath, 1967.
Ostle, Robin. Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East: 1850-1970. London: Routledge, 1991.
Tabet, Jad. Interview. Beyrouth: Trois Visages de la mémoire (Beirut: Three Faces of Memory). Dir. François Caillat. Paris: La Cinq, 2002.
Note on Style and Transliteration
This book is aimed at both specialists in Levantine literature as well as those who are not necessarily familiar with the Arabic and Hebrew languages. Contributors have therefore provided bibliographic information on translations and have quoted from available translations whenever possible. In the absence of published translations, the reader may assume that translations of quoted texts are the author’s own and that page number references are to the original Arabic or Hebrew. Articles in French follow French style guidelines. In all essays transliterations are used only when germane to the author’s argument and follow guidelines established by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Finally, I have adopted the MLA style of in-text citations for ease of reading.
Index
Ýawda (return), 167, 224, 225, 232, 233
A Deserted Winter (al-Hayek), 85
ÝAbbas, Ihsan, 225
ÝAbboud, Anisa
Al-NaÝnaÝ al- barri (La Menthe sauvage), 76
Abdel-Malek, Kamal, 8
Abdul Hadi, Mufid, 179, 180, 184, 193
The Other Side of the Coin, 180
Accad, Evelyn, 84, 93
AchÞtiya (Habibi), 59
Al-ÞAdab, 14, 15
aesthetic (n.), 15, 16, 21, 25, 26
Africa, 94
Aghacy, Samira, 25, 102, 115, 125
Al-Ahram, 43
Alcalay, Ammiel, 16
Alep, 67, 77
Alexandrette, 69
Alexandria, 7, 35, 44
“Capital of memory”, 35
“spirit of”, 36
alienation, 16, 21, 22, 184, 187, 211-16, 219, 221, 224, 235
allégorie, 80, 150, 159, 165
allegory, 39, 101, 104, 221
Allen, Roger, 44
Allenby Bridge, 202, 205
Almog, Oz, 133
Alter, Robert, 17, 19
Ambers and Ashes (Sharabi), 179, 188
Amichai, Yehuda, 58
anachrony, 116, 121, 122, 126
analepsis, 38, 121, 127
anisochrony, 126
Arab Human Development Report 2002, 12
arabesque, as literary figure, 62
Arabesques (Shammas), 51-64, 220
ÝAraidi, NaÝim, 54, 56, 220
Aran, Gideon, 137
al-ÞAshkar, Youssef Habshi
Al-Zil wa-al-Sada (The Shadow and the Echo), 85, 87
Ashrawi, Hanan, 226, 227, 232
Attiyeh, Ahmad Mohammad, 14, 21
Auerbach, Eric, 103
autobiography, 8, 52, 53, 62, 116, 124, 126, 178, 180, 224, 225, 227
function of, 181
Palestinian, 178, 179, 180, 223-59
Autumn Quail (Mahfouz), 35, 41-44
Avidan, David, 56
Avi-Yonah, Eva, 230
B for a House Named Beirut (Yunis), 84
Bachelard, Gaston, 86, 89
Badawi, M.M., 13
Badmington, Neil, 26
Baghdad, 172
Bakhtine, Mikhaïl, 171
Band, Arnold, 18, 19
Barakat, Halim, 21
Barakat, Hoda, 22, 23, 24, 25, 84, 104
Hajar al-Dahek (The Stone of Laughter), 22, 84, 86, 87, 89
Barbulesco, Luc, 40
Barghouti, Mourid, 179, 180, 185, 186, 187, 188, 193, 194, 195, 200-09
RaÞaytu Ramallah (I Saw Ramallah), 180, 200-09
Barrès, Maurice, 35
Désintéressement, 37
Barthes, Roland, 211
Baudrillard, Jean, 26
al-Bayati, Abd al-Wahhab
“Traveler Without Luggage”, 212
Beauvoir, Simone de, 211
Bedouins, 183, 227
Beirut, 7, 8, 14, 85, 89, 91, 95, 101, 106, 109, 120, 127, 179, 180, 184, 188, 232, 234
Martyrs’ Square, 123
Benjamin, Walter, 136
Benvenisti, Meron, 133, 138, 139
Bethlehem, 229
Bettelheim, Herbert, 230
Beyrouth, 70, 71, 172
Beyrouth 75 (al-Samman), 70
Bhabha, Homi, 59, 60
Bilād al-Shām, VII
Bildungsroman, 115
Bird from the Moon (Ussayran), 85
borders and boundaries, 64, 85, 87, 91, 92, 104, 105, 108, 110, 111, 112, 200-09, 212, 216, 218, 220, 231, 232
Boshas, Heda, 63
Boullata, Issa, 219
Bourdieu, Pierre, 112
Bourneuf, R., 165
Bowman, Glenn, 177, 178
Brecht, Bertold
The Life of Galileo, 122, 129
Brenner Prize, 143
Brown, Bill, 23
Buccianti, Alexandre, 43
Butor, Michel, 168, 170, 171
Cairo, 41, 42, 44, 45, 180, 184, 186, 204
campagne, 69, 73, 74, 146
camps des réfugiés, 170, 172
Cassioun, 68
Cavafy, Constantinos, 35, 36, 37, 47
censorship, 12, 43
Certeau, Michel de, 24, 88, 104
Chahine, Youssef
Iskandariyya Leh?, 39
character, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 38, 39, 44, 102, 103
Chasseurs dans une rue étroite (Djabra), 172
Christian, 19, 21, 89, 90, 92, 104, 107, 109, 111, 115, 226, 229, 230
Maronite, 115, 123
Christianity, 57
Christie, Agatha
Death on the Nile, 129
Cisjordanie, 152, 154
city, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 84, 185
and danger, 96, 123
and desire, 95
and memory, 228
and violence, 86, 89
myth of, 38, 39, 40
Palestinian, 230
civil society, 25, 87
class, 24, 85, 101, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 121, 178, 184
middle, 179, 184, 195, 228
commitment, 12-25, 87, 93, 206
Arab, VIII, 15
Zionist, 15
communism, 21, 90, 115, 121
Cooke, Miriam, 25, 45, 96
Corneille, Pierre
Le Cid, 129
cosmopolitanism, 35, 41, 42
crisis, VII
in literature, 12
of memory, 177, 189, 190, 192, 195, 196
personal, 188
regional, 11
social and political, 22, 27, 41, 177
culture, 61
and ambivalence, 212, 217, 219
and space, 109, 211
Arab, 12, 62
Eastern Mediterranean, 36
Hebrew language, VIII, 17, 19
Hebrew-Jewish-Israeli, 59
Israeli, 16
Israeli-Arab, 59
Jewish, 17, 19, 52, 56
Levantine, VIII, IX, 13
Palestinian, 59, 151, 229
popular, 227
religious, 26
urban, 234
vs. nature, 76
Western, 11, 212, 226, 237
Zionist, 20, 135
Culture and Imperialism (Said), 11
al-Daif, Rashid, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 83, 88-92, 115-29
Ahl al-Zil (The Shade Dwellers), 85, 86, 88, 93
Al-Mustabid (The Obstinate), 92
ʿAzizi al-Sayyid Kawabata (Dear Mr Kawabata), 15, 21, 115-29
Fusha Mustahdafa Bayna al-Nuʾas wa-al-Nawm (Passage to Dusk), 22, 83, 88-92
Dallal, Shaw, 233
Damascus, 67-74, 213
Daoud, Hassan, 22, 23, 24, 25, 101, 104, 112
Binayat Mathilde (The House of Mathilde), 22, 85, 101-12
Darwish, Mahmud, 59, 64, 181, 223, 224, 226, 237, 238
Dhakira li-al-Nisyan (Memory for Forgetfulness), 223
Days of Ziklag (Yizhar), 136, 141
De retour à Haïfa (Kanafani), 149, 157
Dear Mr Kawabata (al-Daif), 15, 21, 115-29
Debates with Western Thinkers (Nana), 211
Derrida, Jacques
Le Monolinguisme de l’autre
ou la prothèse d’origine, 54
Des hommes au soleil (Kanafani), 145, 147, 152, 169, 170
Des hommes et des fusils (Kanafani), 149, 152, 159
desert, 185
désert, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 147, 169, 170
désillusion, 72
desire, imitative, 107
diaspora, VIII, 60, 135, 185, 187, 195
Jewish, 133, 135
Palestinian, 177-81, 185, 189, 190, 195, 196, 231, 236
disillusionment, 16, 18, 41, 213
Al-Diyar, 88
Djabra, Djabra Ibrahim
Al-Safina, 172
Sayyadoun fi shariʿ dayyiq (Chasseurs dans une rue étroite), 172
Drabble, Margaret, 117, 129
Durrell, Lawrence, 35, 39, 40, 41, 45
Eco, Umberto, 117, 124, 125, 129
effet de réel, 67, 68
Egypt, 27, 35-47, 184, 200, 215
independence of 1922, 42
Revolution of 1952, 42, 43, 45
Suez war of 1956, 43, 122
Eliot, T.S., 37
The Waste Land, 37
emigration, 185, 213
Palestinian, 183, 192
al-Enany, Rasheed, 43, 44
engagement, 14
artistique, 145, 172, 173
dans la lutte armée, 148-50, 153, 172, 173
idéologique, 145, 172, 173
Enlightenment, the, 12-13, 19, 22, 26
Ephrayim Returns to the Alfalfa (Yizhar), 134-37
Ermarth, Elizabeth, 26, 102
espace, 69
description, 154, 160, 165, 171
et littérature, 67
et mémoire, 76
et violence, 75
figuré, 67, 80
intermédiaire, 78
magique, 70
mythique, 80
naturel, 145, 164, 169, 172
référentiel, 67
romanesque, 67, 68, 77, 80
rural, 73, 74
urbain, 67-72, 76, 81, 145, 157, 161, 164-65, 168, 173
ethnicity, 24, 27, 112
Europe, VIII, 16, 17, 60, 218, 224
European Cultural Foundation, 115
exile, 42, 55, 125, 180, 185, 186, 208, 212-21, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234
and disorientation, 201, 204
and inspiration, 206
and return, 202, 204, 208, 224, 225
as home, 220, 221, 236, 237
Jewish, 55, 137
Palestinian, 177, 178, 181, 185-95, 200, 202, 203, 206, 209, 214, 224, 225, 232, 236
psychological, 211-13, 219, 220
Exile’s Return (Turki), 179, 191, 192, 193
Exodus, book of, 61
Faqir, Fadia, 211, 212
al-Faysal, Samar Rouhi, 67, 68
Feldman, Yael, 57
feminism, 45
feudal elites, 13, 22
fiction, VII
Palestinian, 192
focalization, 102, 142
Forster, E.M., 35, 37
Foucault, Michel, 58, 83, 133, 211
Fowles, John, 38
Frank, Joseph, 91
Freud, Sigmund, 92
From the Notebooks of a Woman (Nana), 211
Fusul, 12
gender, VII, 13, 24, 26, 27, 45, 83, 85, 92-97, 104, 109, 112, 212, 215, 218, 221
Genet, Jean, 238
Genette, Gérard, 116, 126, 136, 171
geography, 83, 133, 203, 213
al-Ghaly, Salwa, 94
Ghanaʾyim, Muhammad, 54
al-Ghitani, Gamal, 104
Gillis, John, 177
Girard, René, 107, 108
Goldenstein, Jean-Pierre, 171
Goldmann, Lucien, 153
Gonzales-Quijano, Yves, 223
Gover, Yerach, 20
Goytisolo, Juan, 238
Griffiths, Morwenna, 216
Grosz, Elizabeth, 93
Gurevitch, Zali, 137
Habibi, Emile, 59, 145, 149-51, 154-74
"Al-Hubbu fi qalbi" (L'Amour dans mon coeur), 173
"Bawwabat Mandilbawm" (La Porte de Mandelbaum), 152
"Marthiyyat al-siltʿawn " (Elégie à un crabe), 166
"Nawwar al-lawz" (Les Amandiers en fleurs), 149, 154
Achʾ tiya, 59
Al- Waqaʾiʿ al-ghariba fi khtifaʾ Saʿid Abi al-Nahs al-Mutashaʾil (Les Aventures extraordinaires de Saʿid le Peptimiste), 150, 157, 164, 165, 170, 173
Saraya bint al-ghoul (Saraya fille de l'ogre), 150, 155, 164
Sudasiyyat al-ayyam al-sitta (Sizaine des six jours), 149, 175
Halasa, Ghalib, 67
Halkin, Hillel, 55
Hallaq, Boutros, VIII
Hamarneh, Walid, 38
al-Hamdani, Hamid, 67
Haqqi, Badiʿ
Al-Turab al-hazin (La Terre triste), 148
Haqqi, Yehya, 217
Qindil Umm Hashim (The Saint’s Lamp and Other Stories), 217
Harlow, Barbara, 21
Harshav, Benjamin, 17, 136
Harvey, David, 24
Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment), 16
Havel, Vaclav, 25
Haydar, Haydar, 68-76, 78, 81
Al-Zaman al-mouhish (Le Temps dévasté), 68-76, 81
al-Hayek, René
Shitaa Mahjur (A Deserted Winter), 85
Haykal, Yusuf, 232, 235
Hebrew, the New, 133, 134, 135
Heller, Joseph, 19
Herzl, Theodor, 59
Hever, Hannan, 20, 53, 62, 134
histoire, 71, 75, 77, 78, 165
historical determinism, 121
historiography
Israeli, 193
Palestinian, 179, 184
history, 19, 23, 35, 86, 136, 177, 204, 205
and gender, 83, 87
and geography, 83, 136, 137
assumptions about, 23, 25, 46
Egyptian, 40
engagement with, 89, 90, 136, 137, 225
Israeli-Palestinian, 53
Jewish, 135, 136
oral, 179, 190
Palestinian, 178, 184, 190-93
personal, 58, 184, 193
refuge from, 88, 97, 137, 142
Holy Land, the, 17
home, 86, 89, 106, 110, 182, 186, 212, 213, 216, 221, 236
and geography, 186, 188, 196, 216
as exile, 219, 236, 237
as refuge, 89
collective, 227
ironized, 234
Palestinian, 182
psychological, 186, 194, 214-15, 221, 234
urban, 228
homeland, 27, 180, 185-86, 195, 211-21, 224, 236
and geography, 200, 207, 213
Jewish, 133, 135
Jewish-Palestinian, 60
Palestinian, 177-96, 199, 205, 214, 216, 217, 221, 223, 224, 225, 232
psychological, 209, 212, 214, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 234
homelessness, 56, 227, 236, 237
humanism, 26
hybridity, 53, 236
I Saw Ramallah (Barghouti), 180, 200-09
identity, 37, 52, 58, 86, 195, 212
ambivalent, VIII, 16, 51
and history, 47
and memory, 177
and space, 90, 95, 97, 213
Arab, 211
Arab-Israeli, 51, 52, 54, 55
Arab-Israeli-Palestinian, 63
class, 112
collective, 83, 199, 215, 227, 235
Palestinian, 235
crisis, 56, 57
cultural, 178, 221
essentialized, 26, 61
ethnic, 227
formation of, 41
gender, 87
hybrid, 236
Israeli, 19, 59
Jewish-Israeli, 51, 53, 59, 60
Kurdish, 212, 213, 218, 220, 221
national, 177, 178, 190, 191, 196, 232
Palestinian, 51, 59, 60, 178, 179, 183, 190-96, 204, 226, 232, 235, 236
Palestinian-American, 191
Palestinian-Israeli, 60
personal, 92-95, 178, 199, 214, 235
reciprocal, 53
ideological codes, 24
ideology, VII, 24, 46, 90, 133
Christian, 112
Nasserism, 43, 44
naturalized, 25
of commitment, 22
Palestinian folk, 227
programmatic, 16, 19, 23, 25
Zionist, 18, 19, 133, 135, 137, 143
Idriss, Suhayl, 217
Al-Hay al-Latini (The Latin Quarter), 217
ightirāb (alienation), 16, 21
Ikhlasi, Walid, 77, 81
Dar al-mutʿa (La Maison du plaisir), 68, 77, 81
iltizām (commitment), 14, 15, 16, 21
image, 17, 63, 153
imagery, decadent, 37
imagination, 206
and ideology, 59, 203, 221
artistic, 173, 199
personal, 91, 214, 218
immigration, 226
Jewish, VIII, 160, 184, 193, 230
imperialism, 13
impressionism, 136
intellectuals, 12, 15, 187, 192
Arab, 193, 230
Israeli, 18, 52
Palestinian, 179, 184, 187, 188, 190, 191, 195, 196
Palestinian-Israeli, 20
Sephardic-Israeli, 20
interiority, psychological, 89, 90, 91
invasion
Bonaparte's of Egypt, 35
Israeli of Lebanon, 22
Iraq, VII, 75, 169, 225
ironie, 150, 166, 172
irony, 19, 25, 37, 59, 60, 62
Islam, 57, 75, 127, 128
Israel, 64
Arab culture in, 62
culture of, 18, 19, 51, 53, 56
Erets Yisrael, 133
founding of, 13, 16, 18, 59, 115
idea of, 16
land of, 137, 143
names for, 133, 205
post-Zionist, 20
state of, 53, 177, 203, 224, 232
Israel-Palestine, 27
Al-Ittihad, 145
Izmir, VII
Jabès, Edmond, 64
Jabra, Jabra Ibrahim, 13, 14, 225, 228, 229
Jacobson, David C., VIII
al-Jahiz, 129
JanMohammed, Abdul, 226
Jericho, 229
Jerusalem, 154, 160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, 206
Jerusalem Memories (Shahid), 180
Jordan, 231
Palestinians in, 190
Judaism, 17, 57
Kahana-Carmon, Amalia, 20
Kanafani, Ghassan, 14, 145-49, 152-74
"Al-ʿArous" (La Mariée), 161
"Al-Batal fi al-zinzana" (Le Héros dans sa cellule), 172
"Al-Qamis al-masrouq" (La Chemise volée), 171
"Al-Saghir wa-abouhu wa-al-martina yadhhabouna ila qalʾat Djiddin" (Le Petit, son père et le fusil vont à la forteresse de Djiddin), 155
"Al-Saghir yaktashif ʿan al-muftah yushbihu al-faʾs" (Le Petit découvre la ressemblance entre la clef et la hache), 166
"Al-ʾUfuq waraʾ al-bawwaba" (L'Horizon derrière le passage), 166
"Ard al-burtuqal al-hazin" (La Terre des orangers tristes), 148, 157, 163, 168
"Darb khaʾin" (Le Traître), 169
"Ila an yaʿoud" (Jusqu’à son retour), 147, 169
"Kana yawma dhaka tifla" (Il était alors petit garçon), 173
"Mawt sarir raqm 12" (La Mort du lit no. 12), 170
"Qatil fi al-Mawsil" (Un mort à Mossoul), 162
"Raʾs al-asad al-hadjari" (La Tête d'un lion en pierre), 153
"Thalath ʾawraq min Filistin" (Trois papiers de Palestine), 161
"Waraqa min Gaza" (Un papier de Gaza), 156
ʾAdab al-Muqawamah fi Filistin al-Muhtallah: 1948-1966 (Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine
1948-1966), 14
ʿAʾid ila Haïfa (De retour à Haïfa), 149, 157, 162, 165, 236
ʿAn al-ridjal wa-al-banadiq (Des hommes et des fusils), 149, 152, 159
Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature), VIII, 14
Ma tabaqqa lakum (L’Horloge et le désert), 159, 163, 169
Ridjal fi al-shams (Des hommes au soleil), 145, 147, 152, 169, 170
Umm Saʿd (Mère de Saʿd), 146, 147, 149, 152, 156
Kawabata, Yasunari, 116
The Master of Go, 116
Kermode, Frank, 24
Khaled, Leila, 211
Khalidi, Rashid, 228, 231
Palestinian Identity, 178
Khayr, Nazih, 54
Khoury, Elias, 12, 15, 83
Al-Jabal al-Saghir (Little Mountain), 83, 84
Rihlat Gandi al-Saghir (The Journey of Little Gandhi), 83
Kilpatrick, Hilary, 14
Klemm, Verena, 14, 15
Koweit, 145, 152, 169, 170
Kronfeld, Chana, 59, 134
L’Atelier, 36
L’Horloge et le désert (Kanafani), 159, 163, 169
La Maison du plaisir (Ikhlasi), 68, 77-81
La Menthe sauvage (ʿAbboud), 76
La Réforme, 36
La Terre triste (Haqqi), 148
Lackany, Radamès, 36
language, 54
Arabic, 55, 191, 214, 224
as home, 54, 56
English, 191, 224
Hebrew, VIII, 53, 56-58, 63, 64
Israeli, 56
Jewish, 55, 56
Yiddish, 55
Laor, Dan, 62
la terre natale, 145-169
Lattaquié, 67, 76
lbert, Robert, 38, 42
Le Temps dévasté (Haydar), 68-76, 78, 81
Lebanon, 27, 180, 231
and war, 95, 101, 115
cultural history, 87, 94
Palestinians in, 61, 182, 186, 190, 195
refugee camps in, 225
Lefebvre, Henri, 24, 103
Les Aventures extraordinaires de Saʿid le Peptimiste (Habibi), 150, 157, 164-65, 173
Les Tells (al-Rahib), 76
Lessing, Doris
The Grass Is Singing, 112
Levant, the, VII, VIII, 11, 12, 16, 21
cosmopolitan, 44
defined, VII
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 35
liberation, 26
national, 13, 214
Palestinian, 219
literature
Arabic, 12-16, 21, 56, 57, 104, 115, 116, 129, 192, 217, 230
Egyptian, 43
Hebrew, 16-20, 21, 51, 58, 62, 63, 143
Israeli, 19
Jewish, 17, 56
Levantine, VII, 11
mediation of, 17, 209
of commitment, 12, 17, 22, 24, 134
Palestinian, 177, 185, 230, 232
Palestinian-Israeli, 219, 220
Western, 38, 103
world, 117, 129
Zionist, VIII, 14, 17, 134
Little Mountain (Khoury), 83, 84
Lukács, Georg, 21, 22, 23, 26, 172
Madrid conference, 238
Mahfouz, Naguib, 35-47
Al-Summan wa-al-Kharif (Autumn Quail), 35, 41-44
Miramar, 35, 38-47
Thulathiyyat (The Cairo Trilogy), 43
Zuqaq al-Midaq (Midaq Alley), 43
Mahood, M.M., 42
Malpas, J.E., 199
Mandate, British, 18, 133, 184, 193
Mandelbaum Gate, 166, 167
Mansur, Atallah, 54
In a New Light, 220
martyrdom, 14
martyre, 75, 156, 168
Massalha, Salman, 54
Massey, Doreen, 83
McDowell, Linda and Joane Sharp
Space, Gender, Knowledge, 86
Medhrez, Samia, 43
mémoire, 77, 79, 80, 150
de la Palestine, 160
lieu de, 81
personnelle, 80, 150
memoirs, VII, 46, 178, 179, 181, 185, 211
Palestinian, 177-96
memory, VII, 27, 37, 124, 125, 127, 213
collective, 18, 125, 177-81, 189, 190, 191, 196
environmental, 182
intellectual, 225
Jewish, 223
Palestinian, 184, 223
personal, 125, 178
Memory for Forgetfulness (Darwish), 223
métalepse, 165
metaphor, 85, 206
métaphore, 151, 157
spatiale, 171
métonymie, 148, 159
metonymy, 41
Michael, Sami, 57
microcosm, 43, 104, 109
Midaq Alley (Mahfouz), 43
Mille et Une Nuits, 70, 78, 173
mimesis, 39, 107, 108
Mina, Hanna, 14
Minh-ha, Trinh T., 215, 219
Mintz, Alan, 19
Miramar (Mahfouz), 38-47
Miron, Dan, 143
Mitchell, Timothy, 112
modernism, 21
modernité, 77, 79, 81
modernity, VII, 12, 16, 21-25, 37, 45
Morrison, Paul, 94
Mouvement Nationaliste Arabe, 145
Mukherjee, Bharati, 213
Jasmine, 216
Mur des Lamentations, 168
Muslim, 21, 42, 45, 89, 104, 110, 115, 128
Shiite, 21, 104, 108, 110, 112
Al-Mustabid (Daif), 92
al-Mutanabbi, 129
myth of decadence, 35, 38, 44
al-nah±a (the renaissance), 12
al-nakba (the catastrophe), 182, 189, 190, 193
Nana, Hamida, 211-21
"Writing Away the Prison", 211
Al-Subh al-Dami fi ʿAdan (The Bloody Morning in Eden), 211
Al-Watan fi al-ʿaynayn (The Homeland), 211-21
Hiwarat maʿ Mufakiri al-gharb (Debates with Western Thinkers), 211
Man Yajruʾ ʿala al-Shawq (Who Dares to Desire), 211
Min Dafater Imraʾa (From the Notebooks of a Woman), 211
narrative, 11
defined, VII
mediating function of, 200
national, 143
Palestinian, 53
travel, 35
narrator, 118
Nasrallah, Emily
Al-Iqlaʿ ʿaks al-Zaman (Flight Against Time), 217
nationalism, 53, 191, 192, 196, 214, 216, 231
Palestinian, 53, 214, 227, 231
nature
description of, 141
Neuwirth, Angelika, 229
Nobel Prize, 117
nostalgia, 39, 64, 86, 207, 213, 218, 233, 234
nostalgie, 78, 148, 167
novel, VIII
and myth, 35
Arabic, 13, 25
existentialism, 22
Jordanian-Palestinian, 15
Lebanese, 21
modern, 101
modernism, 35, 46
realism, 22-23, 35, 43, 46, 101, 102
romanticism, 22
Hebrew, 18, 19, 134
le nouveau roman, 13
postmodern, 13
Western, 43, 47
occupation, Israeli, 52, 57, 189, 195, 200, 204, 226
opportunism, 22, 45, 88
orientalism, 11, 35, 139
Orientalism (Said), 11, 193
Oslo process, 177, 180, 189, 194, 196
Ostle, Robin, VIII
Out of Place (Said), 180, 186
Oz, Amos, 20, 54
PAA (Palestinian Autonomous Authority), 200
Palestine, 15, 16, 223
and memory, 182-96, 200, 202, 224, 234
conquered territories, 215
espace de la, 158, 164, 172
history of, 213, 229
idea of, 178, 194, 195, 206, 225
land of, VIII, 17, 64, 69, 137, 143, 182, 184, 193-95, 199, 228, 231, 235, 237
literary image of, 16, 229
memory of, 195
names for, 133, 205
nation of, 53
revolt of 1936, 57, 184
space of, 209
Palestine: Painful Memories (Salih), 180
Palestinian resistance movement, 115, 127, 211, 214
Palmach, 134
parabole, 80
paratext, 117
Passage to Dusk (al-Daif), 22, 83, 88-92
peasant, Palestinian, 184
Persian Gulf, VII
PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), 211
pharmakôn, 46
Pictures of the Past (Sharabi), 179, 182, 188, 191
place, 83, 181, 199-201, 205, 208
Plato, 35
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), 192, 223, 231, 237, 238
plot, 21-24, 92
poetry
Arabic, 233
Palestinian, 192, 204, 206
point of view, 18, 19, 37, 38. See also focalization
poststructuralism, 23
Potok, Rena, 219, 220
progress, 13, 17
prolepsis, 121
Qaatami, Samir, 15
Qleibo, ʿAli, 227, 233
racism, 45
al-Rahib, Hani
Al-Tilal (Les Tells), 76
realism, 22-23, 103. See also novel:realism
réalité extérieure, 67, 68
Realities of a Palestinian Childhood (Rimawi), 180, 182
récit, fragmenté, 165
refugee camp, 179, 184, 185, 195, 224, 225, 232, 237
refugees, Palestinian, 189, 190
representation, 17, 23, 27, 36, 61, 92
and reality, 11, 19
Rimawi, Muhammad, 179, 180, 183, 184, 186, 189, 191
Waqaʾeʿ Tufula Filistiniyya (Realities of a Palestinian Childhood), 180, 182
roman, syrien, 68, 81
Rooke, Tetz, 178
Russia, 19
Saʿada, Antoun, 184
Al-Safina (Djabra), 172
Al-Safir, 211
Said, Edward, 179-84, 187, 188, 193-95, 212, 214, 215, 218, 226, 235, 236
Culture and Imperialism, 11
Orientalism, 11, 193
Out of Place, 180, 186
The Politics of Dispossession, 231
Sakakini, Hala, 231, 234, 236
Salah al-Din, 213
Salah, Yusra, 226
Saleh, Tayeb, 217
Mawsim al-Hijra ila al-Shamal (Seasons of Migration to the North), 217
Salih, Husni, 179-80, 184, 186, 191, 193
Filistin: Dhikrayat Muʾ lima (Palestine: Painful Memories), 180
al-Samman, Ghada, 68
Al-Qamar al-Murabbaʿ (The Square Moon), 217
Bayrut 75 (Beyrouth 75), 70
Saraya fille de l’ogre (Habibi), 150, 155, 164
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 211
Sarup, Madan, 212
Sayigh, Rosemary, 177, 179, 231
Scheherezad, 62
sectarianism, 16, 21, 22, 26, 83, 85, 90, 92, 101, 108, 109, 112
Seferis, George, 37
Seidel, Michael, 213
Shahid, Serene Husseini, 179-84, 188, 189, 191
Jerusalem Memories, 180
Shaked, Gershon, 18, 136, 137, 141
Shamir, Moshe, 134
Shammas, Anton, 51-64, 220
Arabeskot (Arabesques), 51-64, 220
Sharabi, Hisham, 179, 182, 184, 186-88, 191, 193-95, 224, 229, 230, 233, 234
Al-Jamr wa-al-Ramad (Ambers and Ashes), 179, 188
Suwar al-Madi (Pictures of the Past), 179, 182, 188, 191
al-Shaykh, Hanan, 83, 88, 96
Hikayat Zahra (The Story of Zahra), 83, 84, 88, 92-96
Shehadeh, Raja, 229, 232, 236
Shéhérazade, 80
Siddiq, Mohammad, 13
Silberstein, Laurence, 133
Slyomovics, Susan, 177, 182
Smilansky, Moshe, 63
Snir, Reoven, 56
social reality, 18, 22, 23
socialism, 45, 121, 134, 238
Soja, Edward, 24, 83
Soul in Exile (Turki), 179
Soviet Union, 115
space, 24, 103
and crisis, 41, 108
and description, 47, 103, 104, 138-41, 182, 185, 208
and identity, 199
and ideology, 83, 103, 111, 112, 213, 215, 220
and language, 52-53, 58, 60, 64, 214, 219
and memory, VII, 37, 181, 201
and narrative, 24, 41, 102-04, 181, 199, 224
and perception, 40, 199
and time, 41, 137, 199, 202, 204, 208, 234
diasporic, 181, 186, 190, 196, 201
domestic, 25, 84-97, 109
exterior, 83-87, 95, 96
gendered, 84, 87, 109, 112
interior, 83-92
liminal, 42, 220
mythic, 35, 41, 46, 224
psychological, 201, 205, 209, 214, 219, 220
social, VIII, 24, 27, 102, 107, 183, 212
symbolic, 85-86, 91
urban, 35, 37, 41, 229, 230
Spurr, David, 11
Stanford Friedman, Susan, 24
subjectivity, 21, 23, 24, 84, 88, 103
gendered, 97
Sudan, 225
Sweden, 180
Swedenburg, Ted, 177, 184
symbol, 37, 38, 41-45, 110, 123, 135, 185, 187, 204, 221
symbole, 81, 148-53, 157, 167, 168, 169
arbre, 148, 151
symbolism, 43, 45, 183, 185, 190, 206
political, 18, 44, 45, 195, 207, 227
symbolisme, 151-57
politique, 148, 150
synecdoche, 101
syntax, 135, 138
Syria, 27, 52, 180, 186, 211, 213, 214, 215
Greater, 182, 231
Syrian Nationalist Party, 184
terror, 51, 54, 59, 110
The Alexandria Quartet (Durrell), 37, 41
The Bloody Morning in Eden (Nana), 211
The Cairo Trilogy (Mahfouz), 43
The Disinherited (Turki), 179
The Homeland (Nana), 211-21
The House of Mathilde (Daoud), 22, 85, 101
The Journey of Little Gandhi (Khoury), 83
The Other Side of the Coin (Mufid), 180
The Politics of Dispossession (Said), 231
The Shade Dwellers (al-Daif), 85, 86, 88, 93
The Shadow and the Echo (al-ʾAshkar), 85, 87
The Stone of Laughter (Barakat), 22, 84, 86, 87, 89
The Story of Zahra (al-Shaykh), 83, 84, 89, 93
The Waste Land (Eliot), 37
Tibawi, Abdul Latif, 232
time, 83, 136, 142
"masculine", 83
and exile, 201
and memory, 181
and myth, 39
and narrative, 24, 35, 41, 46, 103, 121, 122
Messianic, 136
of representation, 135
representation of, 102, 135, 136, 142
Tomiche, Nada, 173
topos, 11, 35, 38, 69
city, 123
Tsirkas, Stratis
Drifting Cities, 37
Tueni, Ghassan, 101
Turkey, VII
Turki, Fawaz, 179, 184-95, 224, 225, 231-38
Exile’s Return, 179, 191-93
Soul in Exile, 179
The Disinherited, 179
typology, 136
Umm Kulthum, 39, 41, 46
Umm Saʿd (Kanafani), 146-52, 156
Ungaretti, Guiseppe, 35, 37
United States, 17, 179, 182, 191, 224, 233, 237
University of Cairo, 200
Ussayran, Layla
Taʾer Min al-Qamar (Bird from the Moon), 85
utopie, 75
Van Leeuwen, Richard, 104
Vial, Charles, 68
ville, 69, 76
lieu de fracture, 72, 76, 81
lumière, 69
royaume du plaisir, 72
violence, 22, 26, 70, 72, 74, 75, 83, 88, 89, 91, 93, 109, 164, 169
and language, 54
domestic, 93
ethnic-sectarian, 21, 53, 101, 112, 161, 172
political, 147, 148, 209
representation of, 173
war, 86, 101
Lebanese Civil, VII, 15, 21-23, 83, 97, 101, 115, 121
of 1948, 14, 57, 61, 115, 133, 136, 148, 154, 159, 161, 177-86, 232
of 1956, 43, 122
of 1967, 14, 22, 42, 47, 52, 62, 162, 167, 189, 215, 223, 226, 227
of 1973, 115
ongoing, 26
World War I, 17, 122, 125, 231
Watad, Muhammad, 54
West, the, 40, 212, 221
White, Hayden, 23
Who Dares to Desire (Nana), 211
Yehoshua, A.B., 20, 51, 60, 63
yidiʾat ha-arets (knowing the land), 133, 134, 138, 139
Yizhar, S., 63, 133-43
"Ha-Shavui" (The Prisoner), 63, 137-41, 142-43
"Shayarah Shel Chatsot" (Midnight Convoy), 141-43
"The Story of Chirbat Chizʾah", 63, 140, 141-43
Efrayim Chozer la-Aspeset (Ephrayim Returns to the Alfalfa), 134-37
Yeme Tsiklag (Days of Ziklag), 136, 141
Yunis, Iman Hmeidan
Baʾ Mythil Bayt Mythil Bayrut (B for a House Named Beirut), 84
Yusuf Bey Karam, 125
Zaghlul, Saʿd, 41, 43, 44
Zahran, Yasmin, 232
Zanarini, Gaston, 36
Zerubavel, Yael, 14, 18, 19, 136
Zionism, 17, 22, 53, 55, 133, 136, 137, 138, 143, 225
post, 20
Preface
Note on Style and Transliteration
Introduction:
A Survival Aesthetic for Ongoing War
Part One – Modern Crises
Christophe Ippolito (Carlisle, Pennsylvania)
Naguib Mahfouz’s Alexandria: Oblivion and Remembrance
Gil Zehava Hochberg (Los Angeles)
“The Dispossession of Hebrew”:
Anton Shammas’s Arabesques and the Cultural Space of Language
Elisabeth Vauthier (Nantes)
La Ville entre mémoire et rupture dans la littérature syrienne
Samira Aghacy (Beirut)
Domestic Spaces in Lebanese War Fiction: Entrapment or Liberation?
Ken Seigneurie (Beirut)
The Everyday World of War in Hassan Daoud’s House of Mathilde
Paul Starkey (Durham, U.K.)
Crisis and Memory in Rashid al-Daif’s Dear Mr Kawabata:
An Essay in Narrative Disorder
Part Two – Memory and Homeland
Todd Hasak-Lowy (Gainesville, Florida)
Thesis, Antithesis, Thesis:
Nature in S. Yizhar’s War of Independence Stories
Sobhi Boustani (Lille)
Terre natale et paysages urbains dans le roman palestinien:
Essai sur les œuvres de Ghassan Kanafani et Emile Habibi
Juliane Hammer (Washington, D.C.)
A Crisis of Memory:
Homeland and Exile in Contemporary Palestinian Memoirs
Richard van Leeuwen (Amsterdam)
A Journey to Reality: Mourid Barghouti’s I Saw Ramallah
Abir Hamdar (Beirut)
Exile, Home and Identity:
Constructing Alternative Spaces in The Homeland by Hamida Nana
Susanne Enderwitz (Heidelberg)
“Home” in Palestinian Autobiographies
Contributors
Index
Preface
A word is in order about the words in our title. “Levantine” gets the nod over “Middle” or “Near Eastern,” “West Asian” and “Mashrek” as each of these terms encompass too much territory: Turkey, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states are beyond our purview. Bilād al-Shām would work except that it is not generally understood by non-Arabic speakers and therefore would undermine the book’s objective, which is to coax readers into the stream of Levantine literature. Nor, to be sure, is “Levant” the perfect term since it evokes a bygone horizon stretching from Izmir to Alexandria. Yet Levant it is and for a couple of reasons. The term refers not only to the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean, but also allusively to the region’s actual and “orientalized” complexity. Perhaps the following essays devoted to self-representations of the Levant will build new meanings into this old word.
The terms “modern” and “crisis” go together in the Levant as elsewhere, only more so. The fictions and memoirs studied here follow modernity’s ideologies, gender troubles and culture clashes as these intersect with crisis in the Levant. The texts intervene in another of this book’s key concepts, “memory.” Whether they bid to build it, or rescue it from erasure, or save it from opportunistic manipulations, none of the narratives studied here are indifferent to memory. There can be no forgetfulness or escape for this literature.
“Space,” as the ultimate stake in modern Levantine crises and memory, would seem to be the ground upon which everything else rests. Indeed, the contributors to this book have studied how fictions and memoirs relate to spaces, actual and virtual. Yet memory can also trump space, as Lebanese architect and urban planner, Jad Tabet, pointed out in a recent interview about Beirut’s post-war development project:
In one way or another, they wanted to erase the notion that a war had occurred there and erase also the memory of this ancient city that had spawned it. It is a way of beginning from ground zero, a way of reinvoking the myth of the Phoenix who is reborn from its own ashes but who is reborn with all his wings shimmering. But memory resists and memory cannot be erased like that. What is very dangerous is that the return of the repressed can sometimes be catastrophic. We know it in Lebanon and we know it everywhere.
Space is not only gravid with meanings that condition memory; memory too bears meanings that in turn condition spaces. The contributors to this volume focus on this interplay in the final key word in our title, “narrative.” As a way of knowing, narrative (from gnārus, “knowing”) links memory and space. Yet, as mere strings of signs standing for persons, things and events, and leading to a point that is foisted upon the whole, narrative knowledge can never be more than contingent. The august function of narrative and its simultaneous fragility, are reasons why so much energy is lavished on controlling it. This book is devoted to understanding the techniques used to build and inflect narrative in its various forms from memoir and autobiography to the novel.
As for the production process of this book itself, if ever I doubted the weight of social space, this project has made a believer of me. In consulting books of similar scope, I was impressed by the rigorous method Oxford-based Robin Ostle displays in his short foreword to Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East: 1850-1970, and by the firm grasp of history Paris-based Boutros Hallaq displays in his presentation of La Poétique de l’espace dans la littérature arabe moderne. From the other side of the Atlantic, Brown University’s Kamal Abdel-Malek and David C. Jacobson are equally impressive for their sensible, even-handed preface to their Israeli and Palestinian Identities in History and Literature. I confess to having tried to follow the unpoliticized rigor and warmth of these books, but connections between scholarship and political controversy that may be implicit elsewhere are often manifest in Beirut, and this is not always a bad thing. Issues that appear cut-and-dried elsewhere throb with controversy in Beirut. This book is born of such debate and to this extent, it is a child of the city.
Soon after this book was proposed, numerous objections were bruited, among them that it deals with only narrative in Arabic and Hebrew, having left out other Levantine languages such as Armenian and Turkish. Even within its scope, the book also neglects or under-represents numerous areas and authors. These choices reflect the interests of those who chose to contribute, and the result does not pretend to adequately represent the range of narrative in the Levant.
Some have also complained that two Levantine languages are too many when one of them is Hebrew. The most plausible reason for the proposed exclusion of Hebrew is that this literature is in no real sense of the word Levantine inasmuch as it was generally nourished in a European context until the twentieth century. True enough, but the Hebrew language was never simply a European language and East European Jews were arguably never simply Europeans. There exists an irreducible ambivalence of Hebrew-language culture that many who today share mixed origins or diaspora lives can well appreciate. Come to think of it, “ambivalent identity” may be the one thing common to all the Levant. Given that massive Jewish immigration into Palestine is a fact and that the literature of this experience has some relation to Levantine culture, to ignore it would be as intellectually unsound as willful ignorance of the Palestinian experience. Indeed, none less than the dean of Arab commitment, Ghassan Kanafani, also displayed serious interest in Zionist literature in Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature) – and arguably not just “to know the enemy” but to know the truth of a cultural situation, which is also the aim of the present volume.
I would like to thank the following persons and institutions for their support and assistance. Angelika Neuwirth initiated the project and has been a guiding force since its inception. The Lebanese American University in Beirut has offered me a livelihood, and its library has proven far greater than its modest size would suggest. I thank its director, Aida Naaman, and the members of her staff with whom I have had the pleasure of working: Cendrella Abdallah, Sawsan Habre, Aida Hajjar, Bughdana Hajjar, and Kamal Jaroudy. I thank Edgard Weber of the Université de Toulouse – Le Mirail for organizing “Symposium 2000: Les Romanciers libanais d’expression arabe,” a conference whose stimulating atmosphere boosted interest in this project. For their help in desktop page layout, I thank Chirine Abou Chakra, Birgit Embalo, Emma Ghannagé and especially Hussam Harakeh. I also thank Jean Aucagne s.j. for looking over the style in French. Perhaps more than for most such cooperative projects, the contributors to this volume deserve my gratitude for the patience and confidence they have shown from the beginning. I have tried to make the product worthy of their significant investment.
It certainly goes against the spirit of Beirut to thank persons for the intangibles of friendship and stimulating conversation, yet this book owes much to both. It has been my great fortune to count among my friends Rashid al-Daif and John Donahue s.j., both exceptionally knowledgeable in Levantine culture. John has moreover put together the handiest Arabic transliteration software I have encountered. Most of all, I acknowledge the mentorship of Samira Aghacy whose expertise in Arabic literature and whose advice at each step of the way in this project has been invaluable. In her capacity as Chair of Humanities at LAU – Beirut, she has also performed the inestimable feat of providing a propitious environment for research, teaching and writing. Finally, May Semaan Seigneurie has been my most critical and consistently helpful reader.
As extensive as my debts are to these friends and colleagues, on numerous occasions in the production process of this book I have chosen not to take counsel, and therefore the responsibility for the final product is mine alone.
Ken Seigneurie
21 March 2003
Works Cited
Abdel-Malek, Kamal and David C. Jacobson. Israeli and Palestinian Identities in History and Literature. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Hallaq, Boutros, Robin Ostle, and Stefan Wild, eds. La Poétique de l’espace dans la littérature arabe moderne. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2002.
Kanafani, Ghassan. Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature). Beirut: Munazzamat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniyya, Markaz al-Abhath, 1967.
Ostle, Robin. Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East: 1850-1970. London: Routledge, 1991.
Tabet, Jad. Interview. Beyrouth: Trois Visages de la mémoire (Beirut: Three Faces of Memory). Dir. François Caillat. Paris: La Cinq, 2002.
Note on Style and Transliteration
This book is aimed at both specialists in Levantine literature as well as those who are not necessarily familiar with the Arabic and Hebrew languages. Contributors have therefore provided bibliographic information on translations and have quoted from available translations whenever possible. In the absence of published translations, the reader may assume that translations of quoted texts are the author’s own and that page number references are to the original Arabic or Hebrew. Articles in French follow French style guidelines. In all essays transliterations are used only when germane to the author’s argument and follow guidelines established by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Finally, I have adopted the MLA style of in-text citations for ease of reading.
Index
Ýawda (return), 167, 224, 225, 232, 233
A Deserted Winter (al-Hayek), 85
ÝAbbas, Ihsan, 225
ÝAbboud, Anisa
Al-NaÝnaÝ al- barri (La Menthe sauvage), 76
Abdel-Malek, Kamal, 8
Abdul Hadi, Mufid, 179, 180, 184, 193
The Other Side of the Coin, 180
Accad, Evelyn, 84, 93
AchÞtiya (Habibi), 59
Al-ÞAdab, 14, 15
aesthetic (n.), 15, 16, 21, 25, 26
Africa, 94
Aghacy, Samira, 25, 102, 115, 125
Al-Ahram, 43
Alcalay, Ammiel, 16
Alep, 67, 77
Alexandrette, 69
Alexandria, 7, 35, 44
“Capital of memory”, 35
“spirit of”, 36
alienation, 16, 21, 22, 184, 187, 211-16, 219, 221, 224, 235
allégorie, 80, 150, 159, 165
allegory, 39, 101, 104, 221
Allen, Roger, 44
Allenby Bridge, 202, 205
Almog, Oz, 133
Alter, Robert, 17, 19
Ambers and Ashes (Sharabi), 179, 188
Amichai, Yehuda, 58
anachrony, 116, 121, 122, 126
analepsis, 38, 121, 127
anisochrony, 126
Arab Human Development Report 2002, 12
arabesque, as literary figure, 62
Arabesques (Shammas), 51-64, 220
ÝAraidi, NaÝim, 54, 56, 220
Aran, Gideon, 137
al-ÞAshkar, Youssef Habshi
Al-Zil wa-al-Sada (The Shadow and the Echo), 85, 87
Ashrawi, Hanan, 226, 227, 232
Attiyeh, Ahmad Mohammad, 14, 21
Auerbach, Eric, 103
autobiography, 8, 52, 53, 62, 116, 124, 126, 178, 180, 224, 225, 227
function of, 181
Palestinian, 178, 179, 180, 223-59
Autumn Quail (Mahfouz), 35, 41-44
Avidan, David, 56
Avi-Yonah, Eva, 230
B for a House Named Beirut (Yunis), 84
Bachelard, Gaston, 86, 89
Badawi, M.M., 13
Badmington, Neil, 26
Baghdad, 172
Bakhtine, Mikhaïl, 171
Band, Arnold, 18, 19
Barakat, Halim, 21
Barakat, Hoda, 22, 23, 24, 25, 84, 104
Hajar al-Dahek (The Stone of Laughter), 22, 84, 86, 87, 89
Barbulesco, Luc, 40
Barghouti, Mourid, 179, 180, 185, 186, 187, 188, 193, 194, 195, 200-09
RaÞaytu Ramallah (I Saw Ramallah), 180, 200-09
Barrès, Maurice, 35
Désintéressement, 37
Barthes, Roland, 211
Baudrillard, Jean, 26
al-Bayati, Abd al-Wahhab
“Traveler Without Luggage”, 212
Beauvoir, Simone de, 211
Bedouins, 183, 227
Beirut, 7, 8, 14, 85, 89, 91, 95, 101, 106, 109, 120, 127, 179, 180, 184, 188, 232, 234
Martyrs’ Square, 123
Benjamin, Walter, 136
Benvenisti, Meron, 133, 138, 139
Bethlehem, 229
Bettelheim, Herbert, 230
Beyrouth, 70, 71, 172
Beyrouth 75 (al-Samman), 70
Bhabha, Homi, 59, 60
Bilād al-Shām, VII
Bildungsroman, 115
Bird from the Moon (Ussayran), 85
borders and boundaries, 64, 85, 87, 91, 92, 104, 105, 108, 110, 111, 112, 200-09, 212, 216, 218, 220, 231, 232
Boshas, Heda, 63
Boullata, Issa, 219
Bourdieu, Pierre, 112
Bourneuf, R., 165
Bowman, Glenn, 177, 178
Brecht, Bertold
The Life of Galileo, 122, 129
Brenner Prize, 143
Brown, Bill, 23
Buccianti, Alexandre, 43
Butor, Michel, 168, 170, 171
Cairo, 41, 42, 44, 45, 180, 184, 186, 204
campagne, 69, 73, 74, 146
camps des réfugiés, 170, 172
Cassioun, 68
Cavafy, Constantinos, 35, 36, 37, 47
censorship, 12, 43
Certeau, Michel de, 24, 88, 104
Chahine, Youssef
Iskandariyya Leh?, 39
character, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 38, 39, 44, 102, 103
Chasseurs dans une rue étroite (Djabra), 172
Christian, 19, 21, 89, 90, 92, 104, 107, 109, 111, 115, 226, 229, 230
Maronite, 115, 123
Christianity, 57
Christie, Agatha
Death on the Nile, 129
Cisjordanie, 152, 154
city, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 84, 185
and danger, 96, 123
and desire, 95
and memory, 228
and violence, 86, 89
myth of, 38, 39, 40
Palestinian, 230
civil society, 25, 87
class, 24, 85, 101, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 121, 178, 184
middle, 179, 184, 195, 228
commitment, 12-25, 87, 93, 206
Arab, VIII, 15
Zionist, 15
communism, 21, 90, 115, 121
Cooke, Miriam, 25, 45, 96
Corneille, Pierre
Le Cid, 129
cosmopolitanism, 35, 41, 42
crisis, VII
in literature, 12
of memory, 177, 189, 190, 192, 195, 196
personal, 188
regional, 11
social and political, 22, 27, 41, 177
culture, 61
and ambivalence, 212, 217, 219
and space, 109, 211
Arab, 12, 62
Eastern Mediterranean, 36
Hebrew language, VIII, 17, 19
Hebrew-Jewish-Israeli, 59
Israeli, 16
Israeli-Arab, 59
Jewish, 17, 19, 52, 56
Levantine, VIII, IX, 13
Palestinian, 59, 151, 229
popular, 227
religious, 26
urban, 234
vs. nature, 76
Western, 11, 212, 226, 237
Zionist, 20, 135
Culture and Imperialism (Said), 11
al-Daif, Rashid, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 83, 88-92, 115-29
Ahl al-Zil (The Shade Dwellers), 85, 86, 88, 93
Al-Mustabid (The Obstinate), 92
ʿAzizi al-Sayyid Kawabata (Dear Mr Kawabata), 15, 21, 115-29
Fusha Mustahdafa Bayna al-Nuʾas wa-al-Nawm (Passage to Dusk), 22, 83, 88-92
Dallal, Shaw, 233
Damascus, 67-74, 213
Daoud, Hassan, 22, 23, 24, 25, 101, 104, 112
Binayat Mathilde (The House of Mathilde), 22, 85, 101-12
Darwish, Mahmud, 59, 64, 181, 223, 224, 226, 237, 238
Dhakira li-al-Nisyan (Memory for Forgetfulness), 223
Days of Ziklag (Yizhar), 136, 141
De retour à Haïfa (Kanafani), 149, 157
Dear Mr Kawabata (al-Daif), 15, 21, 115-29
Debates with Western Thinkers (Nana), 211
Derrida, Jacques
Le Monolinguisme de l’autre
ou la prothèse d’origine, 54
Des hommes au soleil (Kanafani), 145, 147, 152, 169, 170
Des hommes et des fusils (Kanafani), 149, 152, 159
desert, 185
désert, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 147, 169, 170
désillusion, 72
desire, imitative, 107
diaspora, VIII, 60, 135, 185, 187, 195
Jewish, 133, 135
Palestinian, 177-81, 185, 189, 190, 195, 196, 231, 236
disillusionment, 16, 18, 41, 213
Al-Diyar, 88
Djabra, Djabra Ibrahim
Al-Safina, 172
Sayyadoun fi shariʿ dayyiq (Chasseurs dans une rue étroite), 172
Drabble, Margaret, 117, 129
Durrell, Lawrence, 35, 39, 40, 41, 45
Eco, Umberto, 117, 124, 125, 129
effet de réel, 67, 68
Egypt, 27, 35-47, 184, 200, 215
independence of 1922, 42
Revolution of 1952, 42, 43, 45
Suez war of 1956, 43, 122
Eliot, T.S., 37
The Waste Land, 37
emigration, 185, 213
Palestinian, 183, 192
al-Enany, Rasheed, 43, 44
engagement, 14
artistique, 145, 172, 173
dans la lutte armée, 148-50, 153, 172, 173
idéologique, 145, 172, 173
Enlightenment, the, 12-13, 19, 22, 26
Ephrayim Returns to the Alfalfa (Yizhar), 134-37
Ermarth, Elizabeth, 26, 102
espace, 69
description, 154, 160, 165, 171
et littérature, 67
et mémoire, 76
et violence, 75
figuré, 67, 80
intermédiaire, 78
magique, 70
mythique, 80
naturel, 145, 164, 169, 172
référentiel, 67
romanesque, 67, 68, 77, 80
rural, 73, 74
urbain, 67-72, 76, 81, 145, 157, 161, 164-65, 168, 173
ethnicity, 24, 27, 112
Europe, VIII, 16, 17, 60, 218, 224
European Cultural Foundation, 115
exile, 42, 55, 125, 180, 185, 186, 208, 212-21, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234
and disorientation, 201, 204
and inspiration, 206
and return, 202, 204, 208, 224, 225
as home, 220, 221, 236, 237
Jewish, 55, 137
Palestinian, 177, 178, 181, 185-95, 200, 202, 203, 206, 209, 214, 224, 225, 232, 236
psychological, 211-13, 219, 220
Exile’s Return (Turki), 179, 191, 192, 193
Exodus, book of, 61
Faqir, Fadia, 211, 212
al-Faysal, Samar Rouhi, 67, 68
Feldman, Yael, 57
feminism, 45
feudal elites, 13, 22
fiction, VII
Palestinian, 192
focalization, 102, 142
Forster, E.M., 35, 37
Foucault, Michel, 58, 83, 133, 211
Fowles, John, 38
Frank, Joseph, 91
Freud, Sigmund, 92
From the Notebooks of a Woman (Nana), 211
Fusul, 12
gender, VII, 13, 24, 26, 27, 45, 83, 85, 92-97, 104, 109, 112, 212, 215, 218, 221
Genet, Jean, 238
Genette, Gérard, 116, 126, 136, 171
geography, 83, 133, 203, 213
al-Ghaly, Salwa, 94
Ghanaʾyim, Muhammad, 54
al-Ghitani, Gamal, 104
Gillis, John, 177
Girard, René, 107, 108
Goldenstein, Jean-Pierre, 171
Goldmann, Lucien, 153
Gonzales-Quijano, Yves, 223
Gover, Yerach, 20
Goytisolo, Juan, 238
Griffiths, Morwenna, 216
Grosz, Elizabeth, 93
Gurevitch, Zali, 137
Habibi, Emile, 59, 145, 149-51, 154-74
"Al-Hubbu fi qalbi" (L'Amour dans mon coeur), 173
"Bawwabat Mandilbawm" (La Porte de Mandelbaum), 152
"Marthiyyat al-siltʿawn " (Elégie à un crabe), 166
"Nawwar al-lawz" (Les Amandiers en fleurs), 149, 154
Achʾ tiya, 59
Al- Waqaʾiʿ al-ghariba fi khtifaʾ Saʿid Abi al-Nahs al-Mutashaʾil (Les Aventures extraordinaires de Saʿid le Peptimiste), 150, 157, 164, 165, 170, 173
Saraya bint al-ghoul (Saraya fille de l'ogre), 150, 155, 164
Sudasiyyat al-ayyam al-sitta (Sizaine des six jours), 149, 175
Halasa, Ghalib, 67
Halkin, Hillel, 55
Hallaq, Boutros, VIII
Hamarneh, Walid, 38
al-Hamdani, Hamid, 67
Haqqi, Badiʿ
Al-Turab al-hazin (La Terre triste), 148
Haqqi, Yehya, 217
Qindil Umm Hashim (The Saint’s Lamp and Other Stories), 217
Harlow, Barbara, 21
Harshav, Benjamin, 17, 136
Harvey, David, 24
Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment), 16
Havel, Vaclav, 25
Haydar, Haydar, 68-76, 78, 81
Al-Zaman al-mouhish (Le Temps dévasté), 68-76, 81
al-Hayek, René
Shitaa Mahjur (A Deserted Winter), 85
Haykal, Yusuf, 232, 235
Hebrew, the New, 133, 134, 135
Heller, Joseph, 19
Herzl, Theodor, 59
Hever, Hannan, 20, 53, 62, 134
histoire, 71, 75, 77, 78, 165
historical determinism, 121
historiography
Israeli, 193
Palestinian, 179, 184
history, 19, 23, 35, 86, 136, 177, 204, 205
and gender, 83, 87
and geography, 83, 136, 137
assumptions about, 23, 25, 46
Egyptian, 40
engagement with, 89, 90, 136, 137, 225
Israeli-Palestinian, 53
Jewish, 135, 136
oral, 179, 190
Palestinian, 178, 184, 190-93
personal, 58, 184, 193
refuge from, 88, 97, 137, 142
Holy Land, the, 17
home, 86, 89, 106, 110, 182, 186, 212, 213, 216, 221, 236
and geography, 186, 188, 196, 216
as exile, 219, 236, 237
as refuge, 89
collective, 227
ironized, 234
Palestinian, 182
psychological, 186, 194, 214-15, 221, 234
urban, 228
homeland, 27, 180, 185-86, 195, 211-21, 224, 236
and geography, 200, 207, 213
Jewish, 133, 135
Jewish-Palestinian, 60
Palestinian, 177-96, 199, 205, 214, 216, 217, 221, 223, 224, 225, 232
psychological, 209, 212, 214, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 234
homelessness, 56, 227, 236, 237
humanism, 26
hybridity, 53, 236
I Saw Ramallah (Barghouti), 180, 200-09
identity, 37, 52, 58, 86, 195, 212
ambivalent, VIII, 16, 51
and history, 47
and memory, 177
and space, 90, 95, 97, 213
Arab, 211
Arab-Israeli, 51, 52, 54, 55
Arab-Israeli-Palestinian, 63
class, 112
collective, 83, 199, 215, 227, 235
Palestinian, 235
crisis, 56, 57
cultural, 178, 221
essentialized, 26, 61
ethnic, 227
formation of, 41
gender, 87
hybrid, 236
Israeli, 19, 59
Jewish-Israeli, 51, 53, 59, 60
Kurdish, 212, 213, 218, 220, 221
national, 177, 178, 190, 191, 196, 232
Palestinian, 51, 59, 60, 178, 179, 183, 190-96, 204, 226, 232, 235, 236
Palestinian-American, 191
Palestinian-Israeli, 60
personal, 92-95, 178, 199, 214, 235
reciprocal, 53
ideological codes, 24
ideology, VII, 24, 46, 90, 133
Christian, 112
Nasserism, 43, 44
naturalized, 25
of commitment, 22
Palestinian folk, 227
programmatic, 16, 19, 23, 25
Zionist, 18, 19, 133, 135, 137, 143
Idriss, Suhayl, 217
Al-Hay al-Latini (The Latin Quarter), 217
ightirāb (alienation), 16, 21
Ikhlasi, Walid, 77, 81
Dar al-mutʿa (La Maison du plaisir), 68, 77, 81
iltizām (commitment), 14, 15, 16, 21
image, 17, 63, 153
imagery, decadent, 37
imagination, 206
and ideology, 59, 203, 221
artistic, 173, 199
personal, 91, 214, 218
immigration, 226
Jewish, VIII, 160, 184, 193, 230
imperialism, 13
impressionism, 136
intellectuals, 12, 15, 187, 192
Arab, 193, 230
Israeli, 18, 52
Palestinian, 179, 184, 187, 188, 190, 191, 195, 196
Palestinian-Israeli, 20
Sephardic-Israeli, 20
interiority, psychological, 89, 90, 91
invasion
Bonaparte's of Egypt, 35
Israeli of Lebanon, 22
Iraq, VII, 75, 169, 225
ironie, 150, 166, 172
irony, 19, 25, 37, 59, 60, 62
Islam, 57, 75, 127, 128
Israel, 64
Arab culture in, 62
culture of, 18, 19, 51, 53, 56
Erets Yisrael, 133
founding of, 13, 16, 18, 59, 115
idea of, 16
land of, 137, 143
names for, 133, 205
post-Zionist, 20
state of, 53, 177, 203, 224, 232
Israel-Palestine, 27
Al-Ittihad, 145
Izmir, VII
Jabès, Edmond, 64
Jabra, Jabra Ibrahim, 13, 14, 225, 228, 229
Jacobson, David C., VIII
al-Jahiz, 129
JanMohammed, Abdul, 226
Jericho, 229
Jerusalem, 154, 160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, 206
Jerusalem Memories (Shahid), 180
Jordan, 231
Palestinians in, 190
Judaism, 17, 57
Kahana-Carmon, Amalia, 20
Kanafani, Ghassan, 14, 145-49, 152-74
"Al-ʿArous" (La Mariée), 161
"Al-Batal fi al-zinzana" (Le Héros dans sa cellule), 172
"Al-Qamis al-masrouq" (La Chemise volée), 171
"Al-Saghir wa-abouhu wa-al-martina yadhhabouna ila qalʾat Djiddin" (Le Petit, son père et le fusil vont à la forteresse de Djiddin), 155
"Al-Saghir yaktashif ʿan al-muftah yushbihu al-faʾs" (Le Petit découvre la ressemblance entre la clef et la hache), 166
"Al-ʾUfuq waraʾ al-bawwaba" (L'Horizon derrière le passage), 166
"Ard al-burtuqal al-hazin" (La Terre des orangers tristes), 148, 157, 163, 168
"Darb khaʾin" (Le Traître), 169
"Ila an yaʿoud" (Jusqu’à son retour), 147, 169
"Kana yawma dhaka tifla" (Il était alors petit garçon), 173
"Mawt sarir raqm 12" (La Mort du lit no. 12), 170
"Qatil fi al-Mawsil" (Un mort à Mossoul), 162
"Raʾs al-asad al-hadjari" (La Tête d'un lion en pierre), 153
"Thalath ʾawraq min Filistin" (Trois papiers de Palestine), 161
"Waraqa min Gaza" (Un papier de Gaza), 156
ʾAdab al-Muqawamah fi Filistin al-Muhtallah: 1948-1966 (Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine
1948-1966), 14
ʿAʾid ila Haïfa (De retour à Haïfa), 149, 157, 162, 165, 236
ʿAn al-ridjal wa-al-banadiq (Des hommes et des fusils), 149, 152, 159
Fi al-ʾAdab al-Sihyuni (On Zionist Literature), VIII, 14
Ma tabaqqa lakum (L’Horloge et le désert), 159, 163, 169
Ridjal fi al-shams (Des hommes au soleil), 145, 147, 152, 169, 170
Umm Saʿd (Mère de Saʿd), 146, 147, 149, 152, 156
Kawabata, Yasunari, 116
The Master of Go, 116
Kermode, Frank, 24
Khaled, Leila, 211
Khalidi, Rashid, 228, 231
Palestinian Identity, 178
Khayr, Nazih, 54
Khoury, Elias, 12, 15, 83
Al-Jabal al-Saghir (Little Mountain), 83, 84
Rihlat Gandi al-Saghir (The Journey of Little Gandhi), 83
Kilpatrick, Hilary, 14
Klemm, Verena, 14, 15
Koweit, 145, 152, 169, 170
Kronfeld, Chana, 59, 134
L’Atelier, 36
L’Horloge et le désert (Kanafani), 159, 163, 169
La Maison du plaisir (Ikhlasi), 68, 77-81
La Menthe sauvage (ʿAbboud), 76
La Réforme, 36
La Terre triste (Haqqi), 148
Lackany, Radamès, 36
language, 54
Arabic, 55, 191, 214, 224
as home, 54, 56
English, 191, 224
Hebrew, VIII, 53, 56-58, 63, 64
Israeli, 56
Jewish, 55, 56
Yiddish, 55
Laor, Dan, 62
la terre natale, 145-169
Lattaquié, 67, 76
lbert, Robert, 38, 42
Le Temps dévasté (Haydar), 68-76, 78, 81
Lebanon, 27, 180, 231
and war, 95, 101, 115
cultural history, 87, 94
Palestinians in, 61, 182, 186, 190, 195
refugee camps in, 225
Lefebvre, Henri, 24, 103
Les Aventures extraordinaires de Saʿid le Peptimiste (Habibi), 150, 157, 164-65, 173
Les Tells (al-Rahib), 76
Lessing, Doris
The Grass Is Singing, 112
Levant, the, VII, VIII, 11, 12, 16, 21
cosmopolitan, 44
defined, VII
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 35
liberation, 26
national, 13, 214
Palestinian, 219
literature
Arabic, 12-16, 21, 56, 57, 104, 115, 116, 129, 192, 217, 230
Egyptian, 43
Hebrew, 16-20, 21, 51, 58, 62, 63, 143
Israeli, 19
Jewish, 17, 56
Levantine, VII, 11
mediation of, 17, 209
of commitment, 12, 17, 22, 24, 134
Palestinian, 177, 185, 230, 232
Palestinian-Israeli, 219, 220
Western, 38, 103
world, 117, 129
Zionist, VIII, 14, 17, 134
Little Mountain (Khoury), 83, 84
Lukács, Georg, 21, 22, 23, 26, 172
Madrid conference, 238
Mahfouz, Naguib, 35-47
Al-Summan wa-al-Kharif (Autumn Quail), 35, 41-44
Miramar, 35, 38-47
Thulathiyyat (The Cairo Trilogy), 43
Zuqaq al-Midaq (Midaq Alley), 43
Mahood, M.M., 42
Malpas, J.E., 199
Mandate, British, 18, 133, 184, 193
Mandelbaum Gate, 166, 167
Mansur, Atallah, 54
In a New Light, 220
martyrdom, 14
martyre, 75, 156, 168
Massalha, Salman, 54
Massey, Doreen, 83
McDowell, Linda and Joane Sharp
Space, Gender, Knowledge, 86
Medhrez, Samia, 43
mémoire, 77, 79, 80, 150
de la Palestine, 160
lieu de, 81
personnelle, 80, 150
memoirs, VII, 46, 178, 179, 181, 185, 211
Palestinian, 177-96
memory, VII, 27, 37, 124, 125, 127, 213
collective, 18, 125, 177-81, 189, 190, 191, 196
environmental, 182
intellectual, 225
Jewish, 223
Palestinian, 184, 223
personal, 125, 178
Memory for Forgetfulness (Darwish), 223
métalepse, 165
metaphor, 85, 206
métaphore, 151, 157
spatiale, 171
métonymie, 148, 159
metonymy, 41
Michael, Sami, 57
microcosm, 43, 104, 109
Midaq Alley (Mahfouz), 43
Mille et Une Nuits, 70, 78, 173
mimesis, 39, 107, 108
Mina, Hanna, 14
Minh-ha, Trinh T., 215, 219
Mintz, Alan, 19
Miramar (Mahfouz), 38-47
Miron, Dan, 143
Mitchell, Timothy, 112
modernism, 21
modernité, 77, 79, 81
modernity, VII, 12, 16, 21-25, 37, 45
Morrison, Paul, 94
Mouvement Nationaliste Arabe, 145
Mukherjee, Bharati, 213
Jasmine, 216
Mur des Lamentations, 168
Muslim, 21, 42, 45, 89, 104, 110, 115, 128
Shiite, 21, 104, 108, 110, 112
Al-Mustabid (Daif), 92
al-Mutanabbi, 129
myth of decadence, 35, 38, 44
al-nah±a (the renaissance), 12
al-nakba (the catastrophe), 182, 189, 190, 193
Nana, Hamida, 211-21
"Writing Away the Prison", 211
Al-Subh al-Dami fi ʿAdan (The Bloody Morning in Eden), 211
Al-Watan fi al-ʿaynayn (The Homeland), 211-21
Hiwarat maʿ Mufakiri al-gharb (Debates with Western Thinkers), 211
Man Yajruʾ ʿala al-Shawq (Who Dares to Desire), 211
Min Dafater Imraʾa (From the Notebooks of a Woman), 211
narrative, 11
defined, VII
mediating function of, 200
national, 143
Palestinian, 53
travel, 35
narrator, 118
Nasrallah, Emily
Al-Iqlaʿ ʿaks al-Zaman (Flight Against Time), 217
nationalism, 53, 191, 192, 196, 214, 216, 231
Palestinian, 53, 214, 227, 231
nature
description of, 141
Neuwirth, Angelika, 229
Nobel Prize, 117
nostalgia, 39, 64, 86, 207, 213, 218, 233, 234
nostalgie, 78, 148, 167
novel, VIII
and myth, 35
Arabic, 13, 25
existentialism, 22
Jordanian-Palestinian, 15
Lebanese, 21
modern, 101
modernism, 35, 46
realism, 22-23, 35, 43, 46, 101, 102
romanticism, 22
Hebrew, 18, 19, 134
le nouveau roman, 13
postmodern, 13
Western, 43, 47
occupation, Israeli, 52, 57, 189, 195, 200, 204, 226
opportunism, 22, 45, 88
orientalism, 11, 35, 139
Orientalism (Said), 11, 193
Oslo process, 177, 180, 189, 194, 196
Ostle, Robin, VIII
Out of Place (Said), 180, 186
Oz, Amos, 20, 54
PAA (Palestinian Autonomous Authority), 200
Palestine, 15, 16, 223
and memory, 182-96, 200, 202, 224, 234
conquered territories, 215
espace de la, 158, 164, 172
history of, 213, 229
idea of, 178, 194, 195, 206, 225
land of, VIII, 17, 64, 69, 137, 143, 182, 184, 193-95, 199, 228, 231, 235, 237
literary image of, 16, 229
memory of, 195
names for, 133, 205
nation of, 53
revolt of 1936, 57, 184
space of, 209
Palestine: Painful Memories (Salih), 180
Palestinian resistance movement, 115, 127, 211, 214
Palmach, 134
parabole, 80
paratext, 117
Passage to Dusk (al-Daif), 22, 83, 88-92
peasant, Palestinian, 184
Persian Gulf, VII
PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), 211
pharmakôn, 46
Pictures of the Past (Sharabi), 179, 182, 188, 191
place, 83, 181, 199-201, 205, 208
Plato, 35
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), 192, 223, 231, 237, 238
plot, 21-24, 92
poetry
Arabic, 233
Palestinian, 192, 204, 206
point of view, 18, 19, 37, 38. See also focalization
poststructuralism, 23
Potok, Rena, 219, 220
progress, 13, 17
prolepsis, 121
Qaatami, Samir, 15
Qleibo, ʿAli, 227, 233
racism, 45
al-Rahib, Hani
Al-Tilal (Les Tells), 76
realism, 22-23, 103. See also novel:realism
réalité extérieure, 67, 68
Realities of a Palestinian Childhood (Rimawi), 180, 182
récit, fragmenté, 165
refugee camp, 179, 184, 185, 195, 224, 225, 232, 237
refugees, Palestinian, 189, 190
representation, 17, 23, 27, 36, 61, 92
and reality, 11, 19
Rimawi, Muhammad, 179, 180, 183, 184, 186, 189, 191
Waqaʾeʿ Tufula Filistiniyya (Realities of a Palestinian Childhood), 180, 182
roman, syrien, 68, 81
Rooke, Tetz, 178
Russia, 19
Saʿada, Antoun, 184
Al-Safina (Djabra), 172
Al-Safir, 211
Said, Edward, 179-84, 187, 188, 193-95, 212, 214, 215, 218, 226, 235, 236
Culture and Imperialism, 11
Orientalism, 11, 193
Out of Place, 180, 186
The Politics of Dispossession, 231
Sakakini, Hala, 231, 234, 236
Salah al-Din, 213
Salah, Yusra, 226
Saleh, Tayeb, 217
Mawsim al-Hijra ila al-Shamal (Seasons of Migration to the North), 217
Salih, Husni, 179-80, 184, 186, 191, 193
Filistin: Dhikrayat Muʾ lima (Palestine: Painful Memories), 180
al-Samman, Ghada, 68
Al-Qamar al-Murabbaʿ (The Square Moon), 217
Bayrut 75 (Beyrouth 75), 70
Saraya fille de l’ogre (Habibi), 150, 155, 164
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 211
Sarup, Madan, 212
Sayigh, Rosemary, 177, 179, 231
Scheherezad, 62
sectarianism, 16, 21, 22, 26, 83, 85, 90, 92, 101, 108, 109, 112
Seferis, George, 37
Seidel, Michael, 213
Shahid, Serene Husseini, 179-84, 188, 189, 191
Jerusalem Memories, 180
Shaked, Gershon, 18, 136, 137, 141
Shamir, Moshe, 134
Shammas, Anton, 51-64, 220
Arabeskot (Arabesques), 51-64, 220
Sharabi, Hisham, 179, 182, 184, 186-88, 191, 193-95, 224, 229, 230, 233, 234
Al-Jamr wa-al-Ramad (Ambers and Ashes), 179, 188
Suwar al-Madi (Pictures of the Past), 179, 182, 188, 191
al-Shaykh, Hanan, 83, 88, 96
Hikayat Zahra (The Story of Zahra), 83, 84, 88, 92-96
Shehadeh, Raja, 229, 232, 236
Shéhérazade, 80
Siddiq, Mohammad, 13
Silberstein, Laurence, 133
Slyomovics, Susan, 177, 182
Smilansky, Moshe, 63
Snir, Reoven, 56
social reality, 18, 22, 23
socialism, 45, 121, 134, 238
Soja, Edward, 24, 83
Soul in Exile (Turki), 179
Soviet Union, 115
space, 24, 103
and crisis, 41, 108
and description, 47, 103, 104, 138-41, 182, 185, 208
and identity, 199
and ideology, 83, 103, 111, 112, 213, 215, 220
and language, 52-53, 58, 60, 64, 214, 219
and memory, VII, 37, 181, 201
and narrative, 24, 41, 102-04, 181, 199, 224
and perception, 40, 199
and time, 41, 137, 199, 202, 204, 208, 234
diasporic, 181, 186, 190, 196, 201
domestic, 25, 84-97, 109
exterior, 83-87, 95, 96
gendered, 84, 87, 109, 112
interior, 83-92
liminal, 42, 220
mythic, 35, 41, 46, 224
psychological, 201, 205, 209, 214, 219, 220
social, VIII, 24, 27, 102, 107, 183, 212
symbolic, 85-86, 91
urban, 35, 37, 41, 229, 230
Spurr, David, 11
Stanford Friedman, Susan, 24
subjectivity, 21, 23, 24, 84, 88, 103
gendered, 97
Sudan, 225
Sweden, 180
Swedenburg, Ted, 177, 184
symbol, 37, 38, 41-45, 110, 123, 135, 185, 187, 204, 221
symbole, 81, 148-53, 157, 167, 168, 169
arbre, 148, 151
symbolism, 43, 45, 183, 185, 190, 206
political, 18, 44, 45, 195, 207, 227
symbolisme, 151-57
politique, 148, 150
synecdoche, 101
syntax, 135, 138
Syria, 27, 52, 180, 186, 211, 213, 214, 215
Greater, 182, 231
Syrian Nationalist Party, 184
terror, 51, 54, 59, 110
The Alexandria Quartet (Durrell), 37, 41
The Bloody Morning in Eden (Nana), 211
The Cairo Trilogy (Mahfouz), 43
The Disinherited (Turki), 179
The Homeland (Nana), 211-21
The House of Mathilde (Daoud), 22, 85, 101
The Journey of Little Gandhi (Khoury), 83
The Other Side of the Coin (Mufid), 180
The Politics of Dispossession (Said), 231
The Shade Dwellers (al-Daif), 85, 86, 88, 93
The Shadow and the Echo (al-ʾAshkar), 85, 87
The Stone of Laughter (Barakat), 22, 84, 86, 87, 89
The Story of Zahra (al-Shaykh), 83, 84, 89, 93
The Waste Land (Eliot), 37
Tibawi, Abdul Latif, 232
time, 83, 136, 142
"masculine", 83
and exile, 201
and memory, 181
and myth, 39
and narrative, 24, 35, 41, 46, 103, 121, 122
Messianic, 136
of representation, 135
representation of, 102, 135, 136, 142
Tomiche, Nada, 173
topos, 11, 35, 38, 69
city, 123
Tsirkas, Stratis
Drifting Cities, 37
Tueni, Ghassan, 101
Turkey, VII
Turki, Fawaz, 179, 184-95, 224, 225, 231-38
Exile’s Return, 179, 191-93
Soul in Exile, 179
The Disinherited, 179
typology, 136
Umm Kulthum, 39, 41, 46
Umm Saʿd (Kanafani), 146-52, 156
Ungaretti, Guiseppe, 35, 37
United States, 17, 179, 182, 191, 224, 233, 237
University of Cairo, 200
Ussayran, Layla
Taʾer Min al-Qamar (Bird from the Moon), 85
utopie, 75
Van Leeuwen, Richard, 104
Vial, Charles, 68
ville, 69, 76
lieu de fracture, 72, 76, 81
lumière, 69
royaume du plaisir, 72
violence, 22, 26, 70, 72, 74, 75, 83, 88, 89, 91, 93, 109, 164, 169
and language, 54
domestic, 93
ethnic-sectarian, 21, 53, 101, 112, 161, 172
political, 147, 148, 209
representation of, 173
war, 86, 101
Lebanese Civil, VII, 15, 21-23, 83, 97, 101, 115, 121
of 1948, 14, 57, 61, 115, 133, 136, 148, 154, 159, 161, 177-86, 232
of 1956, 43, 122
of 1967, 14, 22, 42, 47, 52, 62, 162, 167, 189, 215, 223, 226, 227
of 1973, 115
ongoing, 26
World War I, 17, 122, 125, 231
Watad, Muhammad, 54
West, the, 40, 212, 221
White, Hayden, 23
Who Dares to Desire (Nana), 211
Yehoshua, A.B., 20, 51, 60, 63
yidiʾat ha-arets (knowing the land), 133, 134, 138, 139
Yizhar, S., 63, 133-43
"Ha-Shavui" (The Prisoner), 63, 137-41, 142-43
"Shayarah Shel Chatsot" (Midnight Convoy), 141-43
"The Story of Chirbat Chizʾah", 63, 140, 141-43
Efrayim Chozer la-Aspeset (Ephrayim Returns to the Alfalfa), 134-37
Yeme Tsiklag (Days of Ziklag), 136, 141
Yunis, Iman Hmeidan
Baʾ Mythil Bayt Mythil Bayrut (B for a House Named Beirut), 84
Yusuf Bey Karam, 125
Zaghlul, Saʿd, 41, 43, 44
Zahran, Yasmin, 232
Zanarini, Gaston, 36
Zerubavel, Yael, 14, 18, 19, 136
Zionism, 17, 22, 53, 55, 133, 136, 137, 138, 143, 225
post, 20
Literatures in Context is a peer-reviewed book series devoted to Near Eastern and North African literatures. The editors want the title of the series to be understood programmatically. They presuppose a concept of world literature that includes Near Eastern and North African literatures. What is more, they assume that literatures are in many ways marked by intertextuality, that they constitute readings of extremely diverse earlier texts, and that they are posited within a field of tensions, much broader than their respective national language. For the earlier eras of Near Eastern and North African literatures, this field of tensions geographically covers the regions of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. In modern times, it has become a space of interaction that has long since included “global” Western literatures (and realities). This does not imply that the modern Near Eastern and North African literatures have severed themselves from their predecessors. Instead it is precisely the tension between different sets of references in modern Near Eastern and North African literatures, or their “local historical context”, which is a great part of their attraction, that remains a crucial field of research for the modern scholar.