Literature and Nation in the Middle East
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LITERATURE LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST YASIR SULEIMAN is Director of the AND NATION IN Edinburgh Institute for the Advanced THE MIDDLE EAST Study of the Arab World & Islam and Professor of Arabic & Middle Edited by Yasir Suleiman Eastern Studies at the University of and Ibrahim Muhawi Edinburgh. He has written extensively ‘An excellent addition to the field of Arabic literary on the Middle East and his books studies, nationalism studies, and colonial/post-colonial This compelling study presents an original look at how ‘the nation’ is include The Arabic Language and studies. I strongly recommend it.’ National Identity (Edinburgh University represented in the literature of the LITERATURE Middle East. It includes chapters on Press, 2003), The Arabic Grammatical Professor Joseph Massad, Columbia University Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine Tradition (Edinburgh University Press, and Israel, drawing on the expertise 1999) and A War of Words: Language of literary scholars, historians, political and Conflict in the Middle East (2004). AND NATION IN scientists and cultural theorists. ‘A study on the literary construction of the nation in IBRAHIM MUHAWI is a fellow the Middle East is most welcome today, particularly with Literature and Nation in the Middle East of the Edinburgh Institute for offers a synthesising contribution to its emphasis on Palestinian and Hebrew literature… knowledge, placing Arab literature within the Advanced Study of the Arab THE MIDDLE EAST this is an opportune moment to see how [Middle Eastern] the context of emergent or conflicting World & Islam. His published nationalist projects in the area. Topics work is interdisciplinary and writers perceive themselves and their identity.’ addressed include: ranges over the areas of Arabic • the roles played by literature and literature, folklore, and translation. Dr P. C. Sadgrove, University of Manchester interpretation in defining national identity SULEIMAN He is author of Speak Bird, Speak • conflicting nationalisms Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales • conflict resolution (1989). He has also translated and • exile introduced Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory for Forgetfulness (1995). The approaches taken by the authors range & from textual and rhetorical analysis to Jacket design: Cathy Sprent MUHAW historical accounts of the role of literature in contributing to national identity, and Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square political analysis of the use of literature Edinburgh Edited by Yasir Suleiman as a tool in conflict resolution. Genres EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk I covered include fiction (the novel), poetry and verbal duelling. ISBN 0 7486 2073 7 Edinburgh and Ibrahim Muhawi This unique exploration of the subject of literature and the nation in the Arab world is of interest to anyone studying Middle Eastern literature and nationalism, as well as historians and political scientists. Literature and Nation in the Middle East Edited by YASIR SULEIMAN and IBRAHIM MUHAWI EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS SuleimanMuhawi_00_Prelims 1 12/1/06, 9:56 am © in selection and editorial matter, Yasir Suleiman and Ibrahim Muhawi, 2006 © in the individual contributions is retained by the authors Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Goudy by Koinonia, Bury, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 2073 7 (hardback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity. SuleimanMuhawi_00_Prelims 2 12/1/06, 9:56 am Contents Notes on the Contributors v Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Literature and Nation in the Middle East: An Overview 1 Yasir Suleiman 1 The Production of Locality in the Oral Palestinian Poetry Duel Nadia Yaqub 16 2 Irony and the Poetics of Palestinian Exile Ibrahim Muhawi 31 3 Gender and the Palestinian Narrative of Return in Two Novels by Ghassan Kanafani Amy Zalman 48 4 Darwish’s ‘Indian Speech’ as Dramatic Performance: Sacred Space and Transformation J. Kristen Urban 79 5 Israeli Jewish Nation Building and Hebrew Translations of Arabic Literature Hannah Amit-Kochavi 100 6 Between Myth and History: Moshe Shamir’s He Walked in the Fields Shai Ginsburg 110 7 Writing the Nation: The Emergence of Egypt in the Modern Arabic Novel Jeff Shalan 128 8 Arabic Poetry, Nationalism and Social Change: Sudanese Colonial and Postcolonial Perspectives Heather J. Sharkey 162 9 Marginal Literatures of the Middle East Peter Clark 179 SuleimanMuhawi_00_Prelims 3 12/1/06, 9:56 am contents 10 The Predicament of In-Betweenness in the Contemporary Lebanese Exilic Novel in English Syrine C. Hout 190 11 The Nation Speaks: On the Poetics of Nationalist Literature Yasir Suleiman 208 Bibliography 232 Index 257 — iv — SuleimanMuhawi_00_Prelims 4 12/1/06, 9:56 am Notes on the Contributors Dr Hannah Amit-Kochavi teaches at Bar Ilan University and Beit Berl College in Israel. She received her PhD in translation from Tel Aviv University in 2000. Her teaching interests include Arabic-Hebrew translation history, Arabic- Hebrew translator and interpreter training, and classical and modern Arabic literature. Her research interests include Arabic-Hebrew translation history and Arabic teaching to Hebrew speakers in Israel. Peter Clark worked for the British Council for thirty years, mostly in the Middle East. He is an independent consultant and translator and has translated eight books from Arabic – history and fiction – as well as short stories and plays. He is currently translating Ard al-Sawad by Abdel-Rahman Munif. Shai Ginsburg is an Assistant Professor of Hebrew and the Jess Schwartz Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at Arizona State University. He has published articles on Hebrew literature, cultural criticism and historiography, and on modern Jewish ideological practices. Syrine C. Hout is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the American University of Beirut. She is the author of Viewing Europe from the Outside and numerous studies of travel narratives. Her interest in contemporary Lebanese writings produced in exile has resulted in journal articles on Rabih Alameddine, Tony Hanania, Hani Hammoud, Nada Awar Jarrar, Emily Nasrallah, Nadia Tueni and Hanan al-Shaykh. Ibrahim Muhawi was born 1937 in Ramallah, Palestine, and received his educa- tion at the University of California. He has taught at a number of universities around the world, and is currently Allianz Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Munich. His major publications include Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales and a translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory for Forgetfulness. Jeff Shalan is an Assistant Professor of English and Director of Honors Studies at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey. He recently completed his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is — v — SuleimanMuhawi_00_Prelims 5 12/1/06, 9:56 am notes on the contributors currently working on a book manuscript, Writing the Nation and its others: Fictions of Community and Exile in the North African Novel. Heather J. Sharkey is an Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (University of California Press, 2003). Her articles have appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of African History, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, and in many other journals and edited volumes. Yasir Suleiman is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Director of the Edinburgh Institute for the Study of the Arab World and Islam, and Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. He has lectured nationally and internationally on various aspects of the Middle East. His numerous publications include The Arabic Grammatical Tradition (Edinburgh University Press, 1999), The Arabic Language and National Identity: A Study in Ideology (Edinburgh University Press and Georgetown University Press, 2003) and A War of Words: Language and Conflict in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Dr J. Kristen Urban has publishing and research interests in Middle East politics and conflict resolution. She has undertaken work in Gaza and the West Bank and has recently returned from Bahrain as a Senior Fulbright Scholar. She holds an MS in Biology, a PhD in Political Science, and teaches International Studies at Mount St Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD, USA. Nadia Yaqub is Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at the Uni- versity of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her research interests include inter- textuality, identity, nationalism and trans-nationalism in the areas of oral Arabic literature, the novel and film. Amy Zalman received her doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies from New York University in 2003. Her articles, reviews and literary translation have appeared in Arab Studies Journal, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Report, Paintbrush: A Journal of Poetry and Translation, Women’s Review of Books and elsewhere. She is at present a founding partner