Suad a H S M Alenzi
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I am neither there, nor here: An Analysis of Formulations of Post-Colonial Identity in the Work of Edward W. Said and Mahmoud Darwish A Thematic and Stylistic Analytical Approach A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2015 Suad A H S M Alenzi School of Arts, Languages and Cultures TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………….………………………….……………5 Declaration…….………………………………………………..…………………. 6 Copyright Statement…..…….…………………………………………………..…7 Tranliteration Chart….……………………………………………………………9 Acknowledgements…….……………..………………….…………………......…11 Dedication................................................................................................................12 Chapter One:Introduction….……………………………………………………13 1.1 Focus of this Research…….……………...……………………………..….….13 1.2 Rationale for this Thesis………………………………………………….……17 1.3 Aims of this Thesis…………………………………………………………….17 1.4 Research Questions…………………………………………………………….17 1.5 Structure of the Thesis…………………………………………………………18 1.6 Methodology……………………………...……………………………………21 1.6.1 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………….21 1.6.2 Selection of Works by Said and Darwish………………………………..28 1.7 Said: His Life and Work………………………………………………………..31 1.7.1 A Brief Biography……………………………………………………….31 1.7.2 Key Works by Edward Said……………………………………………..33 1.8 Darwish: His Life and Work………………...…………………………………54 1.8.1 A Brief Biography……………………………………………………….54 1.8.2 The Poetry Collections of Darwish……………………………………...55 1.9 Conclusion……………………………………...………………………………68 Chapter Two: Literature Review………………...………………………………70 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 70 2.2 The History of Palestine ....................................................................................... 70 2.3 Palestinian Literature ........................................................................................... 76 2.3.1 Post-Nakba Literature: An Act of Resistance ............................................ 76 2.3.2 Pan-Arabism and Nasser…………………………………..…………......83 2.3.3 Post-Nakba Literature: An Expression of Love………………………….88 2.4 Critical Work on Said and Darwish…..………..…………………...…………..95 2.4.1 Linking the Work of Said and Darwish .................................................... 95 2.4.2 Said and Darwish in Translation ............................................................... 98 2.4.3 Previous Studies on Said‘s Work .............................................................. 99 2.4.4 Previous Studies on Darwish‘s Work ..................................................... 104 2.5 Identity and Post-Colonial Theory ..................................................................... 108 2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 115 2 Chapter Three: “In the Process of Being Invented”: Spaces of Self-Identity in the Work of Said and Darwish .............................................................................. 116 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 116 3.2 Naming and Self-Identity ................................................................................... 119 3.3 Language and Self-identity ................................................................................ 123 3.4 Family and Self-identity ..................................................................................... 125 3.5 Friendship and Self-identity ............................................................................... 127 3.6 Ethnicity and Self-identity ................................................................................. 130 3.7 Nationality within the Homeland and Self-identity ........................................... 134 3.8 Nationality outside the Homeland and Self-identity .......................................... 141 3.9 Cosmopolitanism and Self-identity .................................................................... 147 3.10 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 150 Chapter Four: Out of Place: Displacement, Diaspora, and the Dream of Return in the Work of Said and Darwish ......................................................................... 151 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 151 4.2 Palestinian Displacement ................................................................................... 152 4.2.1 Displacement in Said‘s Work .................................................................. 153 4.2.2 Darwish‘s perspectives on Displacement ................................................ 156 4.3 The Diasporic Experience .................................................................................. 157 4.3.1 Towards a definition of Diaspora ............................................................ 157 4.3.2 The Palestinian Diaspora ......................................................................... 160 4.4 From Displaced Persons to Palestinian Diaspora .............................................. 164 4.5 The Dream of Return (Al-„Awda) ...................................................................... 180 4.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 185 Chapter Five: No Ordinary Grief: Representing the Effects of Post-Nakba and Post-Naksa Trauma on Palestinian Identity in the Works of Said and Darwish .................................................................................................................................. 187 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 187 5.2 Defining Trauma ................................................................................................ 188 5.3 Said‘s Narration of Palestinian Trauma ............................................................. 192 5.4 Palestinian Trauma in Darwish‘s poetry: An Extended Analysis ...................... 199 5.5 Trauma and Existential Crisis ............................................................................ 210 5.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 215 Chapter Six: A Memory for Forgetfulness?:The Representation of Memory in the Work of Said and Darwish .............................................................................. 218 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 218 6.2 Memory and Culture .......................................................................................... 219 6.3 Palestinian Cultural Memory and the Role of the Poet ...................................... 223 3 6.4 A Struggle between Two Memories .................................................................. 225 6.5 Fear of Forgetting, Fear of Being Forgotten ...................................................... 230 6.6. Landscape, Memory and identity in the Poetry of Darwish.............................. 237 6.7. Conclusion………………………………………………………….…………252 Chapter Seven: Conclusion ................................................................................... 253 7.1 Research Findings .............................................................................................. 253 7.2 Limitations of this Research .............................................................................. 259 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 262 Primary Texts ........................................................................................................... 262 Works by Darwish ............................................................................................ 262 English Translations of Darwish‘s Poetry ........................................................ 263 Works by Edward W. Said ............................................................................... 264 Secondary Sources ................................................................................................... 265 Audiovisual resources .............................................................................................. 278 Word Count (83,547) 4 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the work of two of the twentieth century‘s foremost cultural figures, the Palestinian-American literary critic Edward Said (1935-2003) and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), and focuses specifically on the formulation and representation in their respective work of the theme of identity. It explores the depictions of this concept in their writing; comparing and contrasting their personal viewpoints on the various facets of their own identity as Palestinian Arabs and cosmopolitan global citizens expressed through their chosen literary medium, prose for Said and poetry for Darwish. At the same time, this analysis of the creative writing of these two authors will serve to shed light on the complex and ongoing process which is involved in identity formation and maintenance, and conceptualization of the self. Said and Darwish‘s multi- conceptualisations of self-identity take place in Chapter Three, which is divided into seven zones of self-identity.