LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

darwish’s ‘indian speech’ as dramatic performanceassumptions of the rule of law, all individuals stand equally before its precepts.Indeed, her concluding statement, that ‘the work accomplished by a structure oflaws cannot be accomplished by a structure of sentiment: constitutions areneeded to uphold cosmopolitan values’ (110), is a compelling statement for apolitical scientist. But who writes constitutions? Who drafts the treaties ofpeace? In the process of drafting the documents which lay out the precepts of apeople, whose values prevail? It would seem that the one solution – Scarry’slegalism – requires the other – Nussbaum’s generous understandings.This was the dilemma addressed by the 1999 Five College Program in Peaceand World Security Studies (PAWSS) at Amherst College in Massachusetts. 16Kevin P. Clements, Secretary of International Alert (and the Vernon andMinnie Lynch Chair of Conflict Resolution at the Institution of ConflictAnalysis and Resolution at George Mason University), argued that it is criticalfor students to come away from their classrooms both energised and carryingvisions of themselves as peacemakers, ‘integrated beings in a world capable ofintegration’. His ‘Radical Pedagogy’ highlighted four challenges to Americanprofessors. First we – and by extension, our students – must become aware ofwhat affects our world-view. To understand our own realities and what definesus as Americans in an interdependent world requires that we ‘immerse ourselvesin other realities … we must engage in empathy. [For example], what does itmean to be a Palestinian now, isolated in peace and identified by fragmentation?’Second, it is essential to develop a radical empathy in our students toensure that new policies reflecting new visions will arise. Third, fulfilling (1)and (2) requires a creative estrangement: that is, we must ourselves becomediscontent – alienated – to find the motivation for the implementation of atransformative process. It is only in the throes of alienation that we are forced tore-think, re-frame, and to become genuinely creative problem-solvers. Fourth(and finally), we and our students must engage in what Clements calls‘prophetic poem-making’: we need to develop new metaphors to express ouridentities – and thence, behaviours – within the global commons. If the UnitedStates is to assume a leadership role globally, ‘it must place itself in the shoes ofthose who have no hope of ever becoming a global leader, and to examine whatis therefore required to build a sustainable peace’, beginning with the examinationof how situations today characterised by violence and fear can bereconciled with principles of social justice while participatory democracy (itselfdestabilising!) takes root. As educators of our future policy makers (changeagents),we must undertake this project at all levels: within our towns, ourstates, and finally, throughout the world.Darwish’s ‘Indian Speech’ is exemplary of how an engagement with poetrycan work towards these ends. It is important to realise that for this particularpoem there are two audiences to the poetic performance – Darwish’s primary— 93 —www.taq.ir