LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

the nation speaksthe value of literature as art. The latter may consider the attention given to theliterary in the national as a form of elitism that peels away at the social messageof literature. It is therefore important to proceed in a way that preserves for theliterary and the national their integrity. But it is also important that the two aretied together. Getting the right balance is the challenge.notes1. For the purposes of this research, we will adopt Hrushovski’s characterisation ofpoetics as ‘the systematic study of literature’ insofar as it relates to a ‘particular poet’s“art” or “language”’ and ‘how literary texts embody “non-literary” phenomena’(1976: xv, cited in Rimmon-Kenan 1983: 2).2. For ‘territorial nationalism’, see Suleiman (2003: 162–223).3. See Anderson (1991).4. See Dawr al-adab fi al-waÆy al-qawmi al-Æarabi (1980: 23–5).5. See al-Qaysi (1980).6. See al-Bayyati (1980).7. See ÆAli (1980).8. See Qaddafi (1996) and Hussein (2004). Saddam Hussein is claimed as author offour novels.9. Nationalist thinkers stress the importance of ‘quality’ in nationalist literature not asan attribute for its own sake, but as a means to creating a more effective literature inmobilising terms; see Hamadi (1980) for a discussion of the ‘beauty’ (jamal) innationalist writings.10. This is true of prose literature, including the novel; see ÆAbd al-Ghani (1998) for adiscussion of the Arab novel from this perspective.11. Nazik al-Mala’ika is an Iraqi poet. She was born in Baghdad in 1923 and educated inIraq and the US; see Sharara (1994) for a biography of Nazik.12. This paper has its genesis in Suleiman (1995), from which it differs substantially.13. Commenting on the study of nationalism, Hutchinson and Aberbach point out that‘studies of artistic nation builders are thin on the ground’ (1999: 502). They ascribethis to the fact that ‘nation building is … excessively associated with political andsocial processes’, partly because the ‘effects of culture are not as clearly quantifiableas those of politics’ (1999: 501).14. See, for example, al-Daqqaq (n.d.), al-Dasuqi (n.d.), Husayn (1983), ÆIzz al-Din(n.d.), al-Jayyusi (1964), al-Jundi (1962), al-Maqdisi (1982), Sallam (1959), Sharara(1988), al-Tarabulsi (1957), Dawr al-adab fi al-waÆy al-qawmi al-Æarabi (1980), al-Adab al-Æarabi (1987).15. See, for example, al-Daqqaq (n.d.) who ignores Nazik as a nationalist poet in hiscomprehensive survey al-Ittijah al-Qawmi fi al-shiÆr al-Æarabi al-hadith.16. These contributions have been recently anthologised in an influential publicationby the Centre for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut: al-Qawmiyya al-Æarabiyya, fikratuhawa-muqawwimatuha (2 vols, 1993).17. For perennialism and primordialism, see Smith (2001).18. Ibid.19. See Tabana (1974) and Simrin (1990).— 229 —www.taq.ir