Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword In the Realm of Memory
- Acknowledgements
- PART I NOSTALGIA: POLITICS OF THE PAST
- PART II MADNESS: IN THE RUINS OF DREAM AND MEMORY
- 3 Semiology of Madness
- 4 Semiotics of Tyranny
- PART III NARRATING THE NATION: TIME, HISTORY, STORY
- Epilogue Post-national Impulses
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Semiotics of Tyranny
from PART II - MADNESS: IN THE RUINS OF DREAM AND MEMORY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword In the Realm of Memory
- Acknowledgements
- PART I NOSTALGIA: POLITICS OF THE PAST
- PART II MADNESS: IN THE RUINS OF DREAM AND MEMORY
- 3 Semiology of Madness
- 4 Semiotics of Tyranny
- PART III NARRATING THE NATION: TIME, HISTORY, STORY
- Epilogue Post-national Impulses
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
LOVE WITH AN IMPROPER STRANGER
Muhawi speaks of Dhākira li l-nisyān as Darwīsh's ‘attempt to get the Lebanese phase of Palestinian history, the madness that was Beirut (junūn Beirut, also meaning “possession by Beirut”) and his attachment to the city out of his system’.1 He also situates the Palestinian exit from Beirut within the larger context of Palestinian exile, both of which experiences have made an indelible impact on Palestinian understanding of reality. This understanding is reflected in Darwīsh's language, which is here marked by what Muhawi calls ‘reversal’ or
a juxtaposition, whether of two segments of the text or two (or more) perspectives. For example, in the first two sentences of the book the discourse shifts from direct statement to dialogue … Immediately thereafter comes a reversal of ordinary assumptions about birth, love, life, and death: ‘Because you woke me up when you stirred in my belly. I knew then I was your coffin.’ To be born is to die. Memory is for forgetfulness; it exists to be forgotten.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Politics of Nostalgia in the Arabic NovelNation-State, Modernity and Tradition, pp. 111 - 140Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013