Politics and International Relations Late Summer Reading Recommendations from Teaching Staff 2020

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Politics and International Relations Late Summer Reading Recommendations from Teaching Staff 2020 POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS LATE SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM TEACHING STAFF 2020 Staff member Book Title and Author Comments nominating the book Nida Alahmad Princesses’ Street Memoirs of a leading Arabic cultural figure (a novelist, poet, painter, and critic) as he moved from Jabra Ibrahim Jabra Jerusalem to Baghdad post WWII. His journey in the culturally cosmopolitan and vibrant city as a young and talented man helps us see the Middle East and its people through a prism that is often neglected. Memory for Written in Beirut while under Israeli siege in 1982, Darwish wrote this prose poems to reflect on Forgetfulness: August, memory, exile, history, and the role of the writer in war time. A beautifully written documentation of Beirut, 1982 a critical historical episode by one of the most influential figures in modern Arabic poetry. Mahmoud Darwish Jamie Allinson Aleppo, The Rise People know of Aleppo know as a site of ruins and war, but this history lovingly traces the oldest and Fall of Syria’s continuously inhabited urban society in the world, and its template for cosmopolitan civilization. Merchant City Philip Mansel The Queue A dystopian speculative - or not so speculative - fiction set in an alternative Cairo where an all- Basma Abdel Aziz powerful state tries to erase all memory of the “Disgraceful Events” of a failed revolution. Andrea Birdsall The Help Provides a quick read about life as a maid in the segregated South at the cusp of the civil rights Kathryn Stockett revolution. Elizabeth Bomberg Freedom This epic novel explores the relationship between humans and environment, the dilemmas of political Jonathan Franzen radicalism, and the place of individual freedom in modern society. Philip Cook Under Western Eyes Russian politics, political philosophy, terrorism, revolution, political resistance, personal identity, Joseph Conrad family, and love, it’s a great political novel. Sara Dorman Born A Crime: Stories This captures some of the complexities of life in a post-colonial state. Written by the Daily Show star, from a South African it is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Childhood Trevor Noah Claire Duncanson Invisible Women: Entertaining and informative look at the discriminatory consequences of men being treated Exposing Data Bias in a as the default and women as atypical. Full of shocking statistics that will trouble any thoughts World Designed for that there's no longer a need for feminism. Men Caroline Criado Perez (Chatto) This is not a drill, Hard-hitting but necessary jolt to the system, including interesting reflections on what works an extinction rebellion and what doesn't in political campaigning handbook The Uninhabitable Another good recent book on climate breakdown, by the deputy editor of New York magazine. Earth: A Story of the Future David Wallace-Wells (Allen Lane) Darrick Evensen A Sand County A beautifully-written reflection on one man’s personal journey to understand his relationship with the Almanac natural world, which has strongly influenced social movements related to conservation and Aldo Leopold environmentalism. The political implications of this text are manifest in US policy and regulatory agency practice. Silent Spring Both a piece of research and a political campaign, this poetic and moving text stirs the reader’s Rachel Carson emotions to oppose pesticide use, as practiced in the United States in the 1960s. It is a key piece of writing that instigated the modern environmental movement globally and political action on environmental issues. Andy Hom Imperial Life in the You've grown up in the era of Forever War, and you've every right to be mad as hell! Emerald City Rajiv Chandrashekeran The Looming Tower Al Qaeda as farce, then tragedy Lawrence Wright Command and Control Nuclear disasters and near misses, for another year at 2 minutes to midnight Eric Schlosser Iain Hardie Globalization and its Clear explanation of why we shouldn't see economic globalization as an unalloyed positive. The Discontents impact is heavily influenced by how states manage their interaction with the global economy. Stiglitz's Joseph Stiglitz views are often controversial, but they will always get you thinking. The Manibles A novel with (hopefully) an extreme view, but if you want to appreciate the importance of confidence Lionel Shriver in money to a modern economy, and especially the importance for the US of the world's confidence in the dollar, this is an entertaining place to start. Juliet Kaarbo The Handmaid’s Tale A dystopian novel dealing with gender and politics, theocracy and religion, and political totalitarian Margaret Atwood power over thought and action. Don’t just watch the series! Snow- A novel with themes on the complicated clash of religious and secular in modern Turkey. Orhan Pamuk Head of State A work of murder fiction on a possible Brexit referendum, written before the Brexit referendum. Andrew Marr Meryl Kenny Eat Sweat Play: How A fascinating and engaging manifesto for sporting equality that evaluates sport’s role in gender Sport Can Change Our politics – covering everything from school PE, to body dysmorphia, to parenthood and the gender pay Lives gap. Must read during Women’s Euro 2017 especially! Anna Kessel A Woman’s Work Not really a classic autobiography from Labour’s longest continuously serving female MP, but rather Harriet Harman an evaluation of the progress (and setbacks) made on gender equality within the Labour Party (and UK politics) over the last thirty years from Harman’s perspective. A welcome addition to the genre of political memoir that puts women’s lived experiences at its centre. Luke March All the President’s It’s a light-hearted and witty interrogation of some of the main movers and shakers in Vladimir Putin’s Men Kremlin, from the perspective of a Moscow insider. It’s not necessarily the deepest account, but is Mikhail Zygar one of the few that uses interview sources to scratch beneath the surface and bust a few of the myths pervading Russia (not least that the Russian authorities are all-seeing and all-knowing). Mihaela Mihai The Way of the An allegory of apartheid told through the prism of a life-long relationship between two women, Women one Afrikaner and the other black South African. Very powerful in its take on gender, racialisation and Marlene van Niekerk colonialism. The Feast of the Goat A thriller that offers a multi-perspectival view on political dictatorship and the costs of resisting it. Mario Vargas Llosa Nicola Perugini Footnotes in Gaza A journalistic graphic novel about two bloody incidents during the 1956 Suez Crisis. Joe Sacco The Skin Curzio Malaparte Charles Raab We Published in 1924, We is a great dystopian futuristic novel that bears comparison with the better- Evgeny Zamyatins known Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Charlotte Factory Girls: From This book will give you a vivid and fascinating depiction of the lives of young migrant workers in Rommerskirchen Village to City in a southern China. A brilliant account from the coalface of globalisation. Changing China Leslie T. Chang Mathias Thaler The Sellout The Sellout deals with the continued legacy of slavery in US society, albeit from radically different Paul Beatty perspectives – this one bleakly satirical The Underground Like The Sellout, Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad deals with the continued legacy of slavery Railroad Colson in US society, albeit from radically different perspective – this one radically (Afro)pessimist. Whitehead Patrick Theiner Range - How Love the argument, very readable. Should be required reading for anxious social science grads generalists triumph in struggling to find 'their thing'. a specialized world David Epstein The Transformation of Part masterpiece, part monster-piece with over 1000 pages and 3000 bibliography entries! Best the World - A Global enjoyed in smaller doses, but amazing in scope and depth. Truly global. History of the 19th Century Jürgen Osterhammel The Golden Fascinating period in a region most don't know enough about. Neither were the Middle Ages 'dark' in Rhinoceros - Histories Africa, nor can its history be defined by its relationship with Europe. Lovely read. of the African Middle Ages Francois-Xavier Fauvelle Andy Thompson Video/Podcast from Here he reflects on how we should reimagine Europe: George Papandreou, https://www.ted.com/talks/george_papandreou_imagine_a_european_democracy_without_borders. Prime Minister of Greece during the recent economic crisis. Some staff go back to works of classic political fiction you may have read in school. Even so, worth a re-read Andrea Birdsall To Kill a Mockingbird Even if you’ve studied this book before, re-read this classic story on civil rights and race relations. It is Harper Lee still relevant today. Andrew Neal The Quiet American Recommended for its warning about the human cost of political ideas. Graham Greene Oliver Turner 1984 1984 is perpetually relevant to the study of politics. It is a story about power, morality and the George Orwell manipulation of truth about the world by those in positions of authority. “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” .
Recommended publications
  • Jubiläumsgeburtstage Südasiatischer Autoren. Tagore, Faiz, Agyeya Und Nagarjun
    Südasien-Chronik - South Asia Chronicle 2/2012, S. 119-159 © Südasien-Seminar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin ISBN: 978-3-86004-286-1 Literaturnotizen: Jubiläumsgeburtstage südasiatischer Autoren. Tagore, Faiz, Agyeya und Nagarjun HANNELORE LÖTZKE [email protected] CHRISTINA OESTERHELD [email protected] 2011 war ein Jahr wichtiger Jubiläumsgeburtstage südasiatischer Schriftsteller. Zum 150. Mal jährte sich der Geburtstag des weltbekann- ten indischen Literaturnobelpreisträgers Rabindranath Tagore oder Ra- vindranath Thakur in der indischen Namensform (1861-1941). In Indien und Pakistan feierte man den 100. Geburtstag des legendären Urdu- Poeten Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984). Und in Indien wurden anlässlich ihres 100. Geburtstag zwei namhafte Hindi-Literaten geehrt: Sachidan- anda Vatsyayan oder Agyeya (1911-1987) und Nagarjun (1911-1998). Die genannten Jubiläen, auf die im Folgenden in Einzelbeiträgen näher eingegangen wird, fanden auch ein weltweites Echo. 119 Zum 150. Geburtstag des indischen Literaturnobelpreisträgers Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Hannelore Lötzke Rabindranath Tagore, am 7. Mai 1861 in Kalkutta als 14. von 15 Kin- dern und als achter Sohn in einer reichen und kultivierten bengalischen Großgrundbesitzerfamilie geboren, zählt zu den Wegbereitern der in- dischen Moderne. Er hat ein umfassendes Werk hinterlassen, das von der herausragenden Vielseitigkeit seiner Persönlichkeit zeugt – Tagore war Dichter, Erzähler, Romancier, Dramatiker, Musiker, Philosoph, Maler, Bildungsreformer und Pädagoge. Ein konsequenter Erneuerer der ben- galischen Sprache und Literatur, gilt er als Klassiker der Bengali-Kurz- geschichte, bereicherte Lyrik und Dramatik um neue Formen (Tanzdra- men, Musikschauspiele) und trat in eigenen Stücken auch als Regisseur HANNELORE LÖTZKE, CHRISTINA OESTERHELD und Schauspieler hervor. Sein Schaffen hat die moderne Literatur des gesamten Indien maßgeblich beeinflusst.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestinian and Israeli Literature.Pdf
    Palestinian and Israeli Literature Prepared by: Michelle Ramadan, Pingree School This document has been made available online for educational purposes only. Use of any part of this document must be accompanied by appropriate citation. Parties interested in publishing any part of this document must received permission from the author. If you have any recommendations or suggestions for this unit, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle Ramadan at [email protected]. Overview: For many audiences, understanding of the Palestinian­Israeli conflict comes mainly ​ from the media ­­ news of violence and of political friction dominate the airwaves, and we sometimes forget about the ordinary Palestinian and Israeli citizens involved. To get at the human element of the Palestinian­Israeli conflict, students will read, discuss, and reflect on stories from and/or about Palestine and Israel. Units are designed by theme/topic, and each unit contains readings from both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on each theme/topic.This curriculum was designed for a grade 12 course. Timing: Suggested class periods: 21+. This curriculum may, of course, be shortened or ​ lengthened depending on schedule, students, etc. This curriculum may also be developed into a semester long course. How to Read this Document: This Palestinian & Israeli Literature Unit has been divided into 9 ​ mini­units. Under each mini­unit, you will find suggested class times, background information or context, suggested readings, and suggested class lessons/activities. At the end of the document, you will find sample writing assignments and further information about the suggested readings. Most readings are available online, and links have been provided.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibrahim Muhawi
    Ibrahim Muhawi Centerfor CorrtemporaryArab Str-;clies EdlnundA WalshSchrool cf FcreiqrrSetrvir-e Georq ctc-rwn U n itrr-' rsity (O2CC9 Contextsof Languagein MahmoudDarwish lbrahim Muhawi Ibrahim Muharvirvits born in llamallah,Palestine, ancl receivecl his higherecti- catiotritr lrnglishliterature at the Universityof'California. l{e hastirtrght at ur-ri- versitiesin Clanacia,the .lvlidcllellast, North Africa, lhe UnitetlStates, Scotiaitd, atrd(ierman,v. He is the authol of a nurnberof booksand articlcsrln l)alestinian arndArabic folkloreand literatrLre,including (rvith Sharif'l(anaana) Spcak, Birrl, SpetrkA{oin: PolestininnAralt Folktttlcs(i989) ancl(rvith Yasir Suleinran) Litcro- tureand licttittt'tin thc NliticlleEnst (2006). Fle is alsothc translutor<>f iv'lolrmoud I)orv'islish4etrtorl'_f or I:orgct-firlircss(199-5) and Zakar"ia'lanrer's Ilreokire Knccs (2008),andis cr-rrrcntlynorking on a trauslationol I)arlvish'sltturrral of'rut Or- riinary Grie/. 'Ihis patrrerwas eclitt'db,v N1inri Kirlt ancl'l'rarriss (lassidv ils a pilper lr'onrits origir-ralfbrmat irsa 20-rninutetall<, gir.,e n on the occasior-ro1- a tributeto thc lif'c atrdrvorli of N'lal'rrrouci[)aru'ish. IBRAHIMMUHAWI Center for Contemporary Arab Studies EdmundA.Walsh Schoolof ForeignService 241 Intercultural Center Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057- 1020 202.687.5793 http ://ccas.georgetown. edu @2009 by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Atl rights reserved. CONTEXTSOF LANGUACEIN MAHMOUDDARWISH MahmoudDarwish was born in Al-Birweh,Palestine, in 1942.With
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry of Conflict: Egypt, Israel and Palestine. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad Program, 2000 (Egypt and Israel)
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 451 113 SO 032 629 AUTHOR Rahm, Diana L. TITLE Poetry of Conflict: Egypt, Israel and Palestine. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad Program, 2000 (Egypt and Israel). SPONS AGENCY Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 2000-10-00 NOTE 22p. PUB TYPE Creative Works (030) Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Cultural Context; Curriculum Enrichment; Foreign Countries; Global Approach; High Schools; *Literary Devices; *Poets; *World Literature IDENTIFIERS Biodata; Fulbright Hays Seminars Abroad Program; *Middle East; *Palestinian Israeli Conflict ABSTRACT The roots of conflict in the Middle East are deep and tangled. How can teachers of history, philosophy, or literature help their students reach even a simple understanding of the history and continued impact of these conflicts? In this curriculum project, a high school literature teacher has chosen five poets (two Egyptian, two Israeli, and one Palestinian) with distinct perspectives, hoping that students, in exploring these lyrics, will discover a wide variation of emotions and surprising similarities among opposing forces. The poets are Amal Dunqul (Egypt), Yehuda Amichai (Israel), Dalia Ravikovich (Israel), Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine), and Tawfiq Zayyad (Egypt). The unit groups the selected poems thematically and provides a brief biography for each poet. The unit includes only a significant passage (usually a few lines) from the selected poem; however, references are cited from which the entire poems can be accessed. Each selected is briefly explicated. (BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Poetry of Conflict: Egypt, Israel and Palestine Diana L.
    [Show full text]
  • Alandmark 1996 Interview with Mahmoud Darwish
    “EXILE IS SO STRONG WITHIN ME, I MAY BRING IT TO THE LAND” A LANDMARK 1996 INTERVIEW WITH MAHMOUD DARWISH CONDUCTED BY HELIT YESHURUN Mahmoud Darwish—“national poet of Palestine,” “voice of the Palestin- ian people,” cultural icon for millions of Arabs—died four years ago this summer, on 9 August 2008, at the age of 67 following heart surgery. As be!tted a man whose poetry readings !lled sports stadiums and whose poems set to music became anthems across the Arab world, he was given the equivalent of a state funeral in Ramallah, his last abode, with a eulogy by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and three days of of!cial mourning. A political as well as a cultural !gure, Darwish was among the prin- cipal drafters of the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence. His poetry, especially during the !rst period of his career, memorializes the Palestinian experience from 1948 onward, not only the broad sweep of it, but also speci!c events such as Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Tal Za'tar and Sabra and Shatila massacres, the !rst intifada, and so on. Under Israeli siege and bombardment in 1982, he wrote an auto- biographical memoir of his ten-year exile in Beirut titled Memory for Forgetfulness, frequently referred to in the interview that follows. Darwish’s poetry was always a mix of the political/collective and the personal/individual. But while it was the !rst that predominated through the 1980s, his poetry thereafter became increasingly personal. His 1995 collection Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?—also referred to in this interview—is seen by many as a turning point, the !rst of his some thirty books of poetry (translated into more than twenty languages) to be almost exclusively personal.
    [Show full text]
  • The Griffin Poetry Prize Announces the 2011 International And
    THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry Trustees: Margaret Atwood Press Release Carolyn Forché Scott Griffin Robert Hass THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE ANNOUNCES Michael Ondaatje THE 2011 INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN SHORTLIST Robin Robertson David Young TORONTO – April 5, 2011 – Scott Griffin, founder of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry and David Young, trustee, announced the International and Canadian shortlist for this year’s prize noting that judges Tim Lilburn (Canada), Colm Toíbín (Ireland) and Chase Twichell (USA) each read 450 books of poetry, including 20 translations, from poets in 37 countries around the globe. The seven finalists – three Canadian and four International – will be invited to read in Toronto at Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory in the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. The seven finalists will be awarded $10,000 for their participation in the shortlist readings. The winners, announced at the Griffin Poetry Prize Awards evening on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, will be awarded $65,000 each. International Shortlist Human Chain ● Seamus Heaney Farrar, Straus and Giroux Adonis: Selected Poems ● Khaled Mattawa, translated from the Arabic written by Adonis Yale University Press The Book of the Snow ● Philip Mosley, translated from the French written by François Jacqmin Arc Publications Heavenly Questions ● Gjertrud Schnackenberg Farrar, Straus and Giroux Canadian Shortlist Ossuaries ● Dionne Brand McClelland & Stewart The Irrationalist ● Suzanne Buffam House of Anansi Press Lookout ● John Steffler McClelland & Stewart 363 Parkridge Crescent, Oakville, Ontario L6M 1A8, Canada www.griffinpoetryprize.com Tel: 905 618 0420 Email: [email protected] THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry Each year, the Griffin Poetry Prize publishes an anthology, a selection of poems from the shortlisted books, published by House of Anansi Press.
    [Show full text]
  • Carrying Palestine: Preserving the "Postmemory"
    CARRYING PALESTINE: PRESERVING THE "POSTMEMORY" PALESTINIAN IDENTITY AND CONSOLIDATING COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE IN CONTEMPORARY POETIC NARRATIVES by CARLY MELISSA UEBEL A THESIS Presented to the Department of Anthropology and the Robert D. Clark Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts December 2014 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Rana Mikati, first and foremost, for not only aiding me in the process of writing and translating, but for offering me a mentorship unparalleled to any I have received here at the University of Oregon. Professor Mikati endured me as a student of Arabic for three years before I came to her with only a very preliminary idea for this thesis, and she offered me her time and companionship unquestioningly in the months that followed as I endeavored to write the work that follows. I have had no bigger supporter in my time with the University than in Rana. I would also like to thank Professor Allan for his unwavering encouragement and instruction in exploring the Palestinian literary diwan historically and in contemporaneity. I was so very fortunate to have had a team with unmatched knowledge of and insight to my area of interest, and I am humbled by their efforts to work alongside me in this process. I would also like to thank my very closest friends, who spent countless hours by my side, ameliorating my anxiety in my most trying moments and celebrating unabashedly with me in my best. Perhaps no one saw better the challenges I incurred in the process of writing than my friends, and I feel so grateful to have had them beside me.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Francophonie and Human Rights: Diasporic Networks Narrate Social Suffering Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3sr5c9kj Author Livescu, Simona Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Francophonie and Human Rights: Diasporic Networks Narrate Social Suffering A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Simona Liliana Livescu 2013 © Copyright by Simona Liliana Livescu 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Francophonie and Human Rights: Diasporic Networks Narrate Social Suffering by Simona Liliana Livescu Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Efrain Kristal, Co-Chair Professor Suzanne E. Slyomovics, Co-Chair This dissertation explores exilic human rights literature as the literary genre encompassing under its aegis thematic and textual concerns and characteristics contiguous with dissident literature, resistance literature, postcolonial literature, and feminist literature. Departing from the ethics of recognition advanced by literary critics Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith, my study explores how human rights and narrated lives generate larger discursive practices and how, in their fight for justice, diasporic intellectual networks in France debate ideas, oppressive institutions, cultural practices, Arab and European Enlightenment legacies, different traditions of philosophical and religious principles, and global transformations. I conceptualize the term francité d’urgence , definitory to the literary work and intellectual trajectories of those writers who, forced by the difficult political situation in their home countries, make a paradoxical aesthetic use of France, its ii territory, or its language to promote local, regional, and global social justice via broader audiences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish
    The poetry of Mahmoud Darwish The following is a reproduction of the Human Rights and Culture article series of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Issue 19: AHRC-ART-019-2008 Mahmoud Darwish (15 March 1941-9 August 2008) was born in al-Birwa, Acre, in what is now Western Galilee. The second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish, he was taught to read by his grandfather. Darwish published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, at the age of 19. He subsequently published over 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose. He was editor of Al-Jadid, Al-Fajr, Shu'un Filistiniyya and Al-Karmel (1981). His first poetry collection to be published, Leaves of Olives included the poem ‘Identity Card’. He has received numerous awards, and his work has been translated and published in 20 languages. Darwish left Israel in the early 1970s to study in the USSR and was stripped of Israeli citizenship. He attended the University of Moscow for one year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel. In 1995, he returned to attend the funeral of his colleague, Emile Habibi. During the visit, he received a permit from the Israeli authorities to remain in Israel for four days. Darwish was finally allowed to return to live in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1995. Darwish had a history of heart problems and underwent surgery after a heart attack in 1984. He underwent further surgery in 1998. His last visit to Israel was on 15 July 2007 in order to attend a poetry recital at Mt.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanizing the Enemy: Transcending Victimhood Narratives in Mahmoud Darwish’S and Yehuda Amichai’S Poetry
    Humanizing the Enemy: Transcending Victimhood Narratives in Mahmoud Darwish’s and Yehuda Amichai’s Poetry Lobna Ben Salem Manouba University, Tunisia What is left for one to do except renounce oneself in joy donate one’s blood and kidneys donate one’s heart and soul to others be an other’s, be an other. Yehuda Amichai, “Deganya” Introduction There is a cross-disciplinary consensus — from theories of social psychology to socio-political ones — that victimhood narratives, in societies involved in intractable conflicts, are abrasive and exclusive, where each of the sides of the conflict conceives the opposite one as an inhuman entity whose story does not deserve to be taken seriously1. Pursuing the meaning of otherness as it slides into the twisted logic of victimhood implies biases and misperceptions. A discourse of erasure entails the practice of “historical denialism” (Nyhan, Zeitzoff 3) in which one community tends to claim absolute legitimacy of its cause. This usually involves obliterating the traces of the past, by judiciously repressing and deleting chunks of memory narratives or negating parts of historical records. In the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, this practice is more disadvantageous to Palestinians. Rashid Khalidi contends “it often means that permission cannot be granted for a Palestinian voice to be heard—even on matters having absolutely nothing to do with Israel— without the reassuring presence of its Israeli echo. The opposite, of course, is not exactly true: a Palestinian voice is not necessarily required when exclusively Israeli or Jewish concerns are aired” (Palestinian Identity, 146-47). On the Israeli side, “[t]hrough the deployment [of the Nazi holocaust], one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, has cast itself as a ‘victim’ state …” (Finkelstein 3).
    [Show full text]
  • Carleton University Winter 2013 Department of English ENGL 4601A: Studies in Contemporary Poetry Thurs. 2:30-5:30 (Please Confir
    Carleton University Winter 2013 Department of English ENGL 4601A: Studies in Contemporary Poetry Thurs. 2:30-5:30 (Please confirm location on Carleton Central) Prerequisite: Fourth-year standing in Honours English or permission of the Department Instructor: Brenda Vellino Office Phone: 520-2600 ext. 2321 Email: [email protected] Office: 1815 Dunton Tower Office Hours: Wednesday: 1-3 or by appointment TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY OF WITNESS: WRITING HUMAN RIGHTS COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is situated within the emerging interdiscipline of human rights humanities scholarship. Our readings offer encounters with a wide range of world poetry situated in the political, historical, and human rights contexts to and from which they speak. Poets have been both primary and secondary witnesses to the traumas of contemporary history; thus poetry may act as a powerful testimonial form and as a form of countermemory. This course will investigate the ways in which twentieth and twenty-first century poets have responded to state-inflicted political repression, genocide, crimes against humanity, forced exile, torture, illegal detention and disappearance, counterinsurgency campaigns, and suspension of civil rights. It will also consider how they have participated in human rights and transitional justice movements, which seek to record, recognize, remedy, and redress major violations. The course will be divided into three sections: I. Genocides (Armenian, Jewish), II. State Repression: Russia, China, and Chile; and III. Apartheids, Occupations, and Neo-Imperialisms: South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Aboriginal Canada, and the War on Terror. Carolyn Forche makes strong claims for poetry of witness when she writes in her introduction to the course anthology, Against Forgetting: "These poems will not permit us complacency.
    [Show full text]
  • The Translation of Metaphor from Arabic to English in Selected Poems of the Famous Palestinian Poet, Mahmoud Darwish
    i THE TRANSLATION OF METAPHOR FROM ARABIC TO ENGLISH IN SELECTED POEMS OF MAHMOUD DARWISH WITH A FOCUS ON LINGUISTIC ISSUES Mohd Nour Al Salem Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Centre for Translation Studies School of Languages, Cultures and Societies August 2014 ii Copyright The candidate confirms that this work is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. The copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2014 “The University of Leeds” Mohd Nour Al Salem iii Dedication To my mother, wife, and children as the metaphors for every beautiful aspect in my life iv Acknowledgements My deep gratitude is due to my supervisor Professor James Dickins for his continued support and guidance during the research. He gave me a lot of his precious time and unfailing encouragement. His wise judgement was necessary in each section of the study. Special thanks go to Mohammad Bataineh for his help in writing great parts of the proposal. v ABSTRACT MOHD NOUR AL SALEM 2014 THE TRANSLATION OF METAPHOR FROM ARABIC TO ENGLISH IN SELECTED POEMS OF MAHMOUD DARWISH WITH A FOCUS ON LINGUISTIC ISSUES The translation of Arabic literature into English is a wide field of study. The present study focuses only on one aspect - the translation of metaphor in selected poems of Mahmoud Darwish. Arabic is widely known as a strongly metaphorical language, and Darwish’s poems as part of Arabic literature hold many embedded meanings and metaphors that play a major role in building up their artistic flavour.
    [Show full text]