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Nakba La Memoria Letteraria Della Catastrofe Palestinese

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Nakba La Memoria Letteraria Della Catastrofe Palestinese Zenit 11 Simone Sibilio NAKBA LA MEMORIA LETTERARIA DELLA CATASTROFE PALESTINESE Presentazione di Francesca Maria Corrao Zenit Collana diretta da Wasim Dahmash Simone Sibilio Nakba. La memoria letteraria della catastrofe palestinese Edizioni Q - Roma www.edizioniq.it e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Prima edizione: maggio 2013 Seconda edizione: maggio 2015 © 2013, Simone Sibilio Editing: Pamela Murgia Cecilia Dalla Negra In copertina: “Tall al-Za‘tar”, olio su tela di Ismail Shammout su concessione di Yazid Shammout ISBN: 978-88-97831-19-8 Stampa: Studio VD – Città di Castello (Pg) e-mail: [email protected] In memoria di Mahmud Darwish A mio figlio Adel, che sia il senso profondo che porta il tuo nome ad abitare un giorno la Terra Santa Indice p. Presentazione: La lotta per la vita e la morte dell’oblio di Francesca M. Corrao 9 Nota 17 Introduzione 21 1. Nakba e Memory Studies. La memoria nella cultura mondiale contemporanea 33 1.1. I rapporti tra storia e memoria. Gli orizzonti della memoria culturale. Gli studi sul trauma 34 1.2. Memorie subalterne e contro-memorie 42 1.3. La memoria palestinese come contro-memoria 47 1.3.1. L’apporto degli studi culturali alla memoria palestinese 49 1.3.2. La memoria collettiva palestinese tra narrazione sionista e narrazione nazionalista. I registri plurimi della memoria 53 1.4. I mediatori della memoria: l’arte e la cultura per il recupero del passato 60 2. Dal generale al particolare: la memoria palestinese nell’ombra della narrazione dominante israeliana 69 2.1. Il primo e più dolente luogo della memoria collettiva: il significato della Nakba 69 2.2. La contro-memoria della Nakba e le politiche dell’oblio. La manipolazione della memoria dell’Olocausto 71 2.3. Memorie collettive a confronto: Shoah/Nakba e i processi di costruzione identitaria 79 2.3.1. La Shoah e il riconoscimento del dramma dell’altro 79 2.3.2. La Nakba e il riconoscimento del dramma dell’altro 84 2.4. Nakba: strategie e pratiche di un memoricidio 90 3. Gli sviluppi della produzione letteraria palestinese contemporanea tra storia e memoria 98 3.1. Testimoniare la Nakba 98 3.2. La Naksa ravviva il ricordo della Nakba. La memoria della catastrofe dagli anni ‘60 ad oggi 110 7 3.3. Memoria e scrittura autobiografica 121 4. Sulle tracce della Nakba: i luoghi poetici della memoria 128 4.1. Memoria, letteratura, immagine. La funzione tradizionale della poesia 128 4.2. La poesia palestinese: traiettorie plurime di articolazione mnestica 135 4.2.1. Premessa 135 4.2.2. Spazi controversi di memoria poetica 137 4.2.3. Per una topografia letteraria: i loci della poesia tra memoria e oblio, presenza e assenza 143 4.2.4. Tropi identitari e simboli di memoria culturale: tra (dis)locazione e (s)radicamento 163 5. La narrativa palestinese: testi-contenitori di memorie per il futuro 173 5.1. Visioni del disastro nel presente. Ritorno a Haifa di Ghassan Kanafani 173 5.2. Nakba e storia orale. Memoria di Salman Natur 192 5.3. Luoghi dell’oblio, memoria culturale ed intertestualità. L’odissea del Pessottimista di Emil Habibi 208 5.4. Verbalizzare l’inenarrabile. Una memoria per l’oblio nella prosa poetica di Mahmud Darwish 219 Conclusioni 238 Bibliografia 242 Sitografia 274 Indice dei nomi 275 8 Francesca M. Corrao Presentazione La lotta per la vita e la morte dell’oblio Da secoli i libri di storia e la letteratura celebrano i vincitori mentre nel tempo la furia della natura e degli uomini cancella le tracce di po- poli e luoghi. Anche l’arte contribuisce a segnare la fine di una cultu- ra, basta ricordare l’antica chiesa di San Giovanni di Damasco trasfor- mata in Moschea dagli Omayyadi, o Santa Sofia ad Istanbul o il tem- pio di Iside a Roma. Alle diffuse pratiche di islamizzazione del territorio bizantino nella fase del califfato omayyade oggi corrisponde il ripristino della toponomastica biblica in Israele per creare una nuova memoria ebrai- ca. Altre culture hanno cancellato le tracce delle civiltà precedenti; tuttavia dal sovrapporsi di esperienze culturali diverse nasce l’origina- lità di una nuova fase della storia umana. Ma oggi questa ostinata ope- ra di cancellazione minaccia la sopravvivenza della memoria collettiva dei palestinesi. Questi esempi rivelano tuttavia che anche i disastri culturali, come le catastrofi naturali, possono diventare l’occasione per trasfor- mare un luogo, una memoria e dare vita a nuove opere, nell’arte così come nella scrittura. Pertanto i letterati palestinesi per contrastare l’o- blio, hanno elaborato un’epopea di portata mondiale a partire da un dramma epocale. Il poeta Mahmud Darwish scrive: Il nostro è un paese di parole. Parla, parla perché io appoggi il mio cammino su una pietra vera. Il nostro è un paese di parole. Parla, parla 9 per conoscere la fine di questo viaggio* esprimendo tutte le difficoltà di costruire, ritornare, ma anche vivere nel proprio paese. L’oblio soffia incessante come un tifone sulla storia dei palestinesi, a più riprese scacciati e sistematicamente vessati nella loro terra. Le piante, le case, l’acqua e i permessi per lavorare, ogni cosa è usurpata, o assediata da mille ostacoli per rendere invivibile l’e- sistenza in Palestina. La battaglia dai territori prosegue sugli schermi, dove si deci- de chi sono i protagonisti del nostro tempo. Una guerra invisibile si conduce da decenni sui media, laddove quelli occidentali tacciono, ignorando scientemente le sciabolate delle emittenti mediorientali che trasmettono sangue e violenza. Il visibile e l’invisibile conducono le nuove tenzoni di un moderno teatro delle marionette. Mentre ad Oriente la Palestina lotta con un quotidiano susseguirsi di stragi ad Occidente corrisponde il vuoto delle informazioni. L’uomo del nostro tempo è un novello visconte dimezzato di calviniana memoria, un eroe che non realizza appieno la propria umanità, non la manifesta perché non vede la propria metà, o non vuol vedere, una parte importante del- la storia del nostro tempo. Come Simone Sibilio scrive, è la stessa dislocazione, il senso di instabilità dei luoghi, che viene espresso in poesia, a riprodurre l’i- nevitabile conflitto tra memoria e oblio, presenza e assenza. Si ripete l’orrore dell’Olocausto in forma ora di stillicidio, con un lento dissanguamento si emargina e si uccide un popolo debo- le, come quello palestinese, il cui destino è assimilato da Moni Ovadia a quello degli ebrei di un tempo. Questo studio ricostruisce la memoria della Nakba del popolo palestinese attraverso diverse fonti, a partire dal medium letterario, la poesia e la prosa; di un selezionato corpus di opere ne esamina le for- me e le strutture, ne stima il valore e con un’analisi accurata lo sotto- pone alle tesi critiche degli studi postcoloniali. Stana la creatività ara- ba dal rifugio segreto dell’orientalismo per metterla a confronto con il dramma del nemico, del fratello senza la cui storia oggi non si può completare la propria storia. Il merito di questo studio è di portare con la forza di una seria analisi critica la conoscenza della letteratura palestinese all’attenzione * Viaggiamo come gli altri (1984), trad. F. M. Corrao, in Darw†sh M., La mia ferita è lampada a olio, a cura di F. M. Corrao – R. La Scaleia, Avelli- no, De Angelis, 2006, p. 69. 10 dei Memory Studies. Sibilio presenta una convincente sintesi dei numerosi studi dedicati alla memoria e alla nascita della questione palestinese; tra i più significativi spiccano quelli di Edward Said, autore di contributi cruciali in un’ottica postcoloniale. Questo lavoro ha il pregio di organizzare una significativa scelta di memorie di autori che rappresentano segmenti della produ- zione culturale, con le loro particolari esperienze, suscitando una ri- flessione sulla definizione di memoria, cultura e identità nazionale. La memoria però, pur esprimendo il desiderio nostalgico di ritorno ad un tempo felice, elemento centrale nella poetica palestinese dopo la Nakba, può essere anche vista come un atto di resistenza e di recupero per chi dall’esperienza di lutto e di sradicamento aspira a sta- bilire una relazione produttiva con il proprio passato (p. 65). In questo lavoro le opere di memoria sul ‘48 del saggista, del poeta o del roman- ziere, sono messe a confronto con la storia, con l’obiettivo di costrui- re, attraverso il ricordo, una forte prospettiva identitaria da tramandare alle generazioni del futuro. Oggi i mezzi audiovisivi, le fonti, le testimonianze, le prati- che d’espressione orale diventano materiali eccezionali per ricostruire e mantenere viva la storia sommersa, quella parte della memoria della Nakba che la storia ufficiale ha cancellato o ignorato. Il taglio dato allo studio pone la questione in una prospettiva comparatistica, dando ampio rilievo al confronto tra le tragedie dei due popoli nella convinzione che per convivere in pace bisogna prima riconoscere le sofferenze altrui e i propri errori. Per dare forza a questa visione Sibilio si ispira alle opere di Edward Said, con il suo ricono- scimento del dramma dell’Olocausto, e di Elias Sanbar che per oppor- si alla volontà di negazione identitaria trasforma la paralizzante e an- gosciata domanda «da dove veniamo» in una apertura sul futuro «dove andiamo?». L’obiettivo è quello di tramandare l’identità dei palestinesi alle generazioni future. Senza mettere in discussione il peso storico e l’entità delle due tragedie, questa prospettiva vuole contribuire a soste- nere lo sforzo di un riconoscimento reciproco della legittimità dell’al- tro. Sibilio, sottolineandone l’importanza, ricostruisce con accu- ratezza i contributi dati dalla nuova storiografia israeliana alla ricom- posizione della storia della regione che rende giustizia di quanto viene negato dalla storiografia ufficiale. 11 Il testo poi presenta una ricca ed esauriente panoramica delle maggiori opere dei poeti e degli scrittori della letteratura palestinese tenendo conto del complesso intreccio con gli eventi storici all’interno e all’esterno del paese.
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