LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

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the predicament of in-betweenness5. This is the result of mixed marriages and/or attending British or American schoolsand universities in Lebanon or abroad.6. The paperback editions came out in 1999 and 2000 respectively.7. It has been placed on the list of Selected Gay and Lesbian Titles for Spring 1998:Buyers’ Guide. But as Michael Bronski explains, novels with gay or lesbian contentstarted being marketed as ‘literary fiction’ – ‘with an eye to their national or ethniccontent’ – and not exclusively as ‘gay fiction’ around 1994 (1999: 38).8. The blurb is from the 1998 Picador edition.9. Alsatian Johannes Hofer, he explains, coined the term in a 1688 Swiss medicalthesis.10. Lebanon has seventeen official religious denominations.— 207 —www.taq.ir
11 1The Nation Speaks: On the Poetics ofNationalist Literature 1Yasir Suleiman— 208 —The title page of George Antonius’ classic study The Arab Awakening: The Storyof the Arab National Movement, published in London in 1938, carries as anepigraph in beautiful Arabic calligraphy the first hemistich of Ibrahim al-Yaziji’s(1847–1906) famous ode: tanabbahu wa-stafiqu ayyuha al-Æarabu (‘Arise, ye Arabsand Awake!’). As I have argued elsewhere (Suleiman 2003: 96), this choice wasnot fortuitous: it was ‘intended to highlight the cultural nature of this nationalismin its initial stages’ in the nineteenth century; in addition, it was meant todraw attention to the fact that the nationalist idea was, as Antonius expresses it,‘borne slowly towards its destiny on the wings of a nascent literature’, in which,it may be added, poetry played a leading role (Antonius 1936: 60). Thisreference to literature is echoed in the metaphorical use of the term ‘story’ in thesubtitle of Antonius’s book and in the ‘poetic’ flavour of his prose, of which thepreceding quotation is an example. Although one may disagree with Antonius’snarrative on periodisation and agency in the evolution of Arab nationalism, hisviews on culture and literature as sources of this nationalism are still as validtoday as they were at the time of writing. In fact, I would go further and say thatno account of Arab nationalism would be complete without understanding thecontribution literature made, and still makes, to its articulation or to its role ingroup mobilisation.The same is also true of literature, in prose and in poetry, in expressions ofterritorial and pan-Islamic nationalisms in the Arabic-speaking world. 2 To takeone example from Egypt, Ali al-Ghayati, a minor poet, published in 1910 acollection of patriotic poems, Wataniyyati (‘My Patriotism’), to which thenationalist leader Muhammad Farid (1868–1919) wrote an introduction underthe title ta’thir al-shiÆr fi tarbiyat al-umam (‘The Influence of Poetry on theEducation of Nations’). In this introduction, Muhammad Farid – who was triedin a criminal court and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the Britishauthorities for his composition – writes: ‘When the vanquished nations awoketo their situation, they made the first of their principles the composition ofpatriotic qasidas (odes) and rallying songs … It pleases me that this blessedawakening has spread in our country’ (cited in Khouri 1971: 90). He furtheradds, stressing the mobilising role of poetry in Egypt and expressing his panwww.taq.ir
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LITERATUREAND NATION INTHE MIDDLE E
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Notes on the ContributorsDr Hannah
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AcknowledgementsWe would like to th
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Introduction 1Literature and Nation
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introductionliterary lens, while at
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introductionlogically ‘brittle’
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introductionArabic and Palestinian
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introductiona way that, ‘when [ir
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introductionreadings. Shai Ginsburg
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introductionof this, critical discu
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introductionoriginal language. The
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the production of locality in the o
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12Irony and the Poetics of Palestin
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irony and the poetics of palestinia
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israeli jewish nation buildingcircl
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israeli jewish nation buildingTrans
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israeli jewish nation buildingHebre
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israeli jewish nation buildingfrom
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israeli jewish nation building4. Th
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etween myth and historygonist Uri a
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etween myth and historysake of that
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etween myth and historyheroic act o
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etween myth and historygenerations.
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etween myth and historyimprint, and
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etween myth and historywith minor c
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etween myth and historybehaviour, m
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etween myth and history10. Both Oz
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etween myth and historytraditionall
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writing the nationI do not mean to
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writing the nationand, indeed, nece
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writing the nationadvocate from a w
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writing the nationWatani Party (Bar
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writing the nationHowever much they
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writing the nationchange, we can re
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writing the nationon an affair ‘s
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writing the nationhimself as a stau
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writing the nationobvious dramatic
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writing the nation… A person scru
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writing the nationcomrades till he
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writing the nationsets himself up a
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writing the nationWere they chantin
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writing the nationto disrupt the re
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Page 172 and 173: arabic poetry, nationalism and soci
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Page 190 and 191: marginal literatures of the middle
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Page 218 and 219: the nation speaksIslamist nationali
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Page 232 and 233: the nation speaksWhen will we pray?
Page 234 and 235: the nation speaksMin matahati landa
Page 236 and 237: the nation speaksinter-textuality t
Page 238 and 239: the nation speaksthe value of liter
Page 240 and 241: the nation speaksin April 1974 an
Page 242 and 243: ibliographyAdams, William Y. 1977.
Page 244 and 245: ibliographyal-Banna, ÆAbd Allah Mu
Page 246 and 247: ibliographyMiddle East. Miami: Flor
Page 248 and 249: ibliographyDenneny, Michael. 1999.
Page 250 and 251: ibliographyEnergy in Renaissance En
Page 252 and 253: ibliographyArt Forms. London and Ne
Page 254 and 255: ibliographyKhouri, Mounah A. 1971.
Page 256 and 257: ibliographyMassad, Joseph. 1995.
Page 258 and 259: ibliographyParkinson, Dilworth B. 1
Page 260 and 261: ibliographySarkar, Sumit. 1997. ‘
Page 262 and 263: ibliographySharqawi, Abd al-Rahman.
Page 264 and 265: ibliographyTirman, John. 2001, 8 Ju
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IndexAbbas, Ihsan, 54ÆAbduh, Muham
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indexFaqir, Fadia, 182Farah, Khalil
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indexLuah Eretz Yisrael (journal),
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indexoral Palestinian duel, 7-8, 16
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LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

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