LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

j. kristen urban– and understanding of words distinctly different for text-based cultures, whereinwords are static symbols printed upon a page. (See Walter J. Ong, Orality andLiteracy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Routledge, 1982.))10. Orality itself is by nature conservative, upholding traditional values and aestheticstandards because it relies so heavily upon repetition and stylisation: structures thatare easy to remember and re-tell in the absence of written ‘cues’. In upholdingtraditional values and aesthetic standards of his culture, however, the poet-asperformerwas also in the unique position of transmitting these values and standardsto the next generation, and in so doing, he gave them contextual meaning. Theprocess of narration being a process of naming (a thing, an event, an experience),the narrator posits meaning; in preserving these ‘tribal memories’, he is preservingthe collective memory of the past. Moreover, in defining the past, he is givingmeaning to the present and bringing a sense of continuity to what otherwise wouldhave been an inevitable present. (Again, see Ong, note 7 above, for a richerdiscussion of oral tradition.)11. Again, as in note 3 above, see Pelias for discussions of the relationship betweenaudience and performer. Of particular interest here would be the sections relating to‘Exploring the Aesthetic Communication of Others’ (47–99) and ‘The Performativeand Evaluative Roles of the Audience’ (141–67)12. See, for example, publications from the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine(Washington, DC), especially ‘The Palestine National Authority: A CriticalAppraisal’ (May 1995); ‘Beyond Rhetoric: Perspectives on a Negotiated Settlementin Palestine’ (June 1996); ‘Honest Broker? US Policy and the Middle East PeaceProcess’ (April 1997); ‘The Legitimacy of Resistance: Options for PalestinianSurvival’ (December 1998); and ‘May 4, 1999: Implications of Declaring the State’(March 1999).13. Nussbaum has addressed such questions in numerous venues: the Alexander RosenthalLectures for 1991 at Northwestern University Law School; the Hanna Lectures atHamline University; the Arthur Leff Fellow’s Lectures at the Yale University LawSchool; and the Donnelan Lectures at Trinity College in Dublin. In 1994 she wasvisiting professor for a course, Law and Literature, at the law school of the Universityof Chicago. Finally, from 1986–93, she was a consultant at the World Institute forDevelopment Economics Research in Helsinki. As co-director with economistAmartya Sen, she helped direct ‘a project on quality of life assessment in developingcountries. Our project was to show how debates in philosophy – about culturalrelativism and anti-relativism, about utilitarianism and its strengths and weaknesses– were relevant to the work of policy makers as they attempt to find ways ofmeasuring and comparing that elusive thing, “the quality of life,” in a nation’[Nussbaum: xv].14. I am thinking here especially of work undertaken by Herbert C. Kelman indiscussions between Palestinians and Israelis, and exemplified through articles suchas: ‘Creating Conditions for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations’, Journal of ConflictResolution (1986) 26: 39–75; ‘Overcoming Barriers to Negotiation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,’ Journal of Palestine Studies (1986) 16: 13–28; and‘Acknowledging the Other’s Nationhood: How to Create a Momentum for theIsraeli-Palestinian Negotiations’, Journal of Palestine Studies (1992) 22: 18–38.— 98 —www.taq.ir