RMA Thesis in Comparative Literary Studies Utrecht University, the Netherlands
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Van Gils, 5927943 1 TLRMV16205 RMA Thesis Comparative Literary Studies Martijn van Gils 1 RMA Thesis in Comparative Literary Studies Utrecht University, The Netherlands Submitted 1 July 2018 Supervisor: Dr Barnita Bagchi (Utrecht University) Second reader: Dr Ihab Saloul (Amsterdam University) Abstract In this thesis, I investigate how contemporary works of Palestinian literature and film articulate claims to human rights within various UK and US shared reading spaces. My method involves a close analysis of the framing of human rights in contemporary works of Palestinian literature and film; and discussions of the shared reading spaces where the works circulated. I distinguish between three types of rights claims found in the works: the right to exist (contesting the historical erasure of Palestinian life and culture); the right to land (contesting the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land); and the right to speak (contesting the international underrepresentation of Palestinian voices). The right to speak is manifest both within the narratives, as in the very circulation of the works themselves. Each of my chapters addresses a different series of local contexts, a different medium, and a different type of event, illustrating the variety of Palestinian arts. I investigate how the various media frame human rights and lend themselves to different types of shared reading spaces. My respective case studies concern: (1) Film screenings of the documentaries Five Broken Cameras, Roadmap to Apartheid and The Wanted 18 at UK universities; (2) A Bird is Not a Stone, a poetry anthology which was performed in Arabic, English, as well as Scottish languages in Scotland and England in 2014; (3) The 2015 instalment of ‘One Book, Many Communities’, an annual campaign where people from many countries are stimulated to organise reading groups of one specific novel selected by the organisation – in 2015, this was Mornings in Jenin. I argue that the works articulate their claims to rights by framing Palestinian lives as ‘grievable’ and by asserting the need for self- representation and self-determination by representing corporeal suffering and the subjects’ responses to this. The shared reading events construct a space where what I call Palestinian ‘invisibility’ is counter-acted, as they enable access to Palestinian voices. Keywords: Palestine, literature, (documentary) film, circulation, voice Table of Contents Introduction – Palestinian Literature and Human Rights .........................................................1 Outline of Case Studies ........................................................................................................ 2 Methodological Remarks and Defining Key Terms ............................................................. 3 Mapping the Field of Anglophone Scholarship on Palestinian Arts. .................................. 5 Human Rights and Literature .............................................................................................. 8 ‘Giving Voice’ or ‘Enabling Access to Voice’? ................................................................. 12 Outline of Chapters ............................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 1 – The Notion of Palestinian ‘Invisibility’ .................................................................18 Invisibility and the Concept of ‘Transfer’ .......................................................................... 20 A De-legitimised Relationship with the Land .................................................................... 22 The Rhetoric of Emergency ................................................................................................ 24 ‘Two Narratives’ and International Media........................................................................ 26 Chapter 2 – Screening Palestinian Documentaries at English Universities: 5 Broken Cameras (2011), Roadmap to Apartheid (2012) and The Wanted 18 (2014) .............................................30 The Status and Potentialities of Documentary Films ........................................................ 32 Indexicality and Experimentation ...................................................................................... 34 The Nature of ‘Palestinian’ Documentary Films ............................................................... 36 Documentary Techniques and Human Rights in Roadmap to Apartheid (2012) .............. 38 Self-reflexive Materiality and Family Dynamics - The Right to Exist in 5 Broken Cameras (2011) ................................................................................................................................. 43 A Story of ‘Revolutionary Cows’ – The Wanted 18 (2014) ............................................... 49 The Films, the Right to Land, and Promoting Civil Resistance......................................... 53 Screening the Films in UK Student Societies ..................................................................... 55 The Choice of Films – Material, Aesthetic, Socio-political ............................................... 58 Enabling Access to Voice? ................................................................................................. 60 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 3 – A Bird is Not a Stone (2014): A Poetry Anthology in Performance ....................62 Background to A Bird is Not a Stone (2014) ..................................................................... 65 The Transnational Flows in the Anthology ........................................................................ 67 The Right to Exist – Constructing a Palestinian Human Subject ...................................... 69 The Right to Land – “Shading the Names of the Martyrs” .............................................. 74 The Right to Return and Frames of Scepticism ................................................................. 77 Spreading Wings – Circulating and Performing the Anthology ........................................ 81 Who Speaks? On Translation and the Politics of Language ............................................. 82 A Cross-Cultural Dialogue between Scotland and Palestine ............................................ 86 Performing the Anthology – The Right to Speak and Cross-cultural Connections ........... 89 Decentring English Audiences ........................................................................................... 93 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 4 – International Solidarity in Contemporary Literary Cultures: Reading Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin at the “One Book, Many Communities” Campaign ...........95 ‘One Book, Many Communities’ and Contemporary Literary Cultures............................ 97 The Right to Exist and to Land – Historicizing Palestine through Generations ............. 100 The Right to Speak – Exploring What is Behind the ‘Face on the News’ ........................ 106 Circulating Mornings in Jenin in American Reading Groups during the 2015 ‘One Book, Many Communities’ Campaign ....................................................................................... 109 Literature and Community-building ................................................................................ 113 The Author’s Voice and Multi-lingual Discussions ......................................................... 116 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 119 Conclusion – Counter-acting Palestinian Invisibility .............................................................120 Reiterating the Primary Arguments ................................................................................. 120 Overarching Argument – The Role of Literature in Articulating Human Rights ............ 123 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................127 Van Gils, Martijn 1 Introduction Palestinian Literature and Human Rights The right to narrate is not simply a linguistic act; it is also a metaphor for the fundamental human interest in freedom itself, the right to be heard—to be recognized and represented. – Homi Bhabha, “The Right to Narrate.”, n.p. In this thesis, I discuss the manifold ways in which contemporary works of Palestinian literature and film frame human rights to transnational audiences in the UK and the US – manifested both in the narratives themselves, as well as the varying modes of circulation these works undergo. As my use of the phrase ‘UK and US contexts’ implies, and as will be visible in my case studies below, my project is not to identify how human rights are thematised within one specific, geographically defined context. Rather, I wish to illustrate the variety of media and modes of circulation through which contemporary works of art frame human rights to transnational audiences. One of my primary assumptions is that, within the constellation of news media which envelop and even control many people’s daily lives, literary forms have an important role to play in expressing one’s voice and demanding recognition of one’s human rights. As such, my primary theoretical foundation regards theories on the relationship between literature and human rights, as