LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

darwish’s ‘indian speech’ as dramatic performanceFor Columbus in 1492, the irony was that his explorations took him aroundthe world, yet he failed to understand the meaning of his discoveries. Thisaudience – Palestinians five hundred years later – face an exploratory agenda oftheir own, as they undertake to discover Palestine within the boundaries ofOslo. 12 Darwish, having begun the story, twists the ending back on them,requiring them to define its meaning in terms of a future. As the spirit-hosts,that is, the diachronically ‘dead’ (lacking an historical dimension), butspiritually awakened synchronicity, in what sense do Palestinians today haverelevance? What is the meaning of their future? In closing the drama by openingit, the poet has left his audience with a paradox that almost – but not quite –circles back onto itself. It is a story that his audience must complete for itself.One of the most troubling dimensions of the Palestinian struggle has been theapparent absence of good will among Western – especially American – policymakers on the question of Israel and Palestine. This chapter now turns to adiscussion of how Western educators might use literature coming out of nationalstruggles to build understanding among their students, themselves perhaps futurepolicy makers. It is grounded in the belief that the resolution of ‘intransigent’conflicts can be aided through the creative imaginings of the artist, whichpromote alternative ways of conceiving solutions. Such an approach has beenadvanced by Martha Nussbaum, who asserts in her book Poetic Justice: TheLiterary Imagination and Public Life that literature serves an essential role in itsrelation to politics:I make two claims, then, for the reader’s experience: first, that it provides insightsthat should play a role … in the construction of an adequate moral and politicaltheory; second, that it develops moral capacities without which citizens will notsucceed in making reality out of the normative conclusions of any moral or politicaltheory, however excellent … novel-reading [for example] will not give us the wholestory about social justice, but it can be a bridge both to a vision of justice and to thesocial enactment of that vision (1995: 12).In bolstering these claims, she argues that literature enables readers ‘toacknowledge their own world and to choose more reflectively in it’ (31). Moreover,literature reflects the complexity of the lives it presents to its reader,reinforcing the necessity of exploring the non-commensurability of ‘goods’.Such insistencediscourages simple utopian political solutions and suggests an approach that bothfocuses on freedom and leaves much room for diversity. But it is aware that freedomhas material conditions and can be strangled by material inequality. In its insistentfocus on these facts, it inspires compassion and the passion for justice (34).The effect of such exploration is to conceive of the cultural other both asanother (that is, as one with whom we share commonality) and as an other (that— 91 —www.taq.ir