LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

the production of locality in the oral palestinian poetry duelAppadurai describes locality as ‘a complex phenomenological quality, constitutedby a series of links between the sense of social immediacy, the technologies ofinteractivity, and the relativity of contexts.’ What is of interest here isAppadurai’s notion of the fragility of locality. Locality, he says, is ‘ephemeralunless hard and regular work is undertaken to produce and maintain itsmateriality’ (1996: 180). I will be arguing that Palestinians, living and performingin the Galilee, the Triangle and parts of the West Bank are using theirtraditional oral poetic genres as both a tool in that ‘hard and regular work’ and amedium through which their locality can be defined and communicated.I will begin by describing in very general terms the poetry in question. ThePalestinian poetry duel consists of two or more poets who compose and sing inturn, each following strict rules of rhyme, metre, form and musical melody.There are various types of poetry duelling associated with Palestinian weddings.The poetry studied here is typically performed in northern Palestine (TheGalilee, parts of the Triangle, and northern areas of the West Bank). 1 The duelcan be performed in a number of contexts, but is generally associated withpublic celebrations, most often village weddings where it is performed at thegroom’s celebration on the eve of the wedding (the sahrah) as well as on thewedding day itself in conjunction with the wedding procession. The poetry istraditionally a rural phenomenon and is performed by and for men, althoughincreasingly one finds it performed at folk festivals, rallies and other gatheringsthat may include women as well. Performances take place outdoors in a largeopen space. The poets stand facing each other, surrounded by the saff, a ring ofmen usually numbering in the hundreds. The poetry is sung, usually withoutmusical accompaniment.Several types of poetry are performed on any given occasion, and there is noset pattern for their performance. The duel is usually preceded by music anddance. The poetry session will often begin with qusdan (s. qasid), long sung odeswhich are formally similar to the classical Arabic qasidah. This introduction willbe followed by duelling in shorter poetic genres (usually four hemistiches)which the poets trade for anywhere from one to over 100 turns. One form, thefarÆawi, which is always performed extensively at weddings, does not consist of aduel between two poets. Rather, one poet recites to the audience who respondto each line by singing a refrain. Audience participation, in the form ofclapping, dancing, and singing refrains, is an important part of the entireperformance. Indeed, several poets have told me that they could not composewithout an audience. The poets move periodically from one genre to the next,usually spending no more than twenty minutes on any one form. A performanceends as it began, with the recitation of a qasid or other more sombre versesfollowed by music, dancing and the ritual of dressing and shaving the groom.One of the most striking features of the oral Palestinian poetry duel are the— 17 —www.taq.ir