Mahmoud Dervesh and The Palestinian Resistance: A Study of His Selected Works (Published)
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Dervesh (1941-2008) also called “the Poet of the Resistance” wrote poems of resistance integral to every Arab’s consciousness which includes 30 poetry and prose collections, translated into 35 languages, making everybody hear about his love of his usurped homeland. His poetic works such as Olive Leaves (1964), A Lover from Palestine (1966), Siege for the Praises of the Sea (1984) and Why Have you Left the Horse Alone (1995) have largely defined the Palestinian resistance. In 1997 a documentary was produced about him by French TV directed by noted French-Israeli director Simone Bitton. Darvesh is the recipient of many international literary awards including the Lotus prize in 1969, the Lenin prize in 1983, France’s highest medal as Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres in 1997 and the Moroccan Wissam of intellectual merit was handed to him by King Mohammad VI of Morocco. In 2001, he won the Lannan prize, a prize which recognizes people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom, of imagination, inquiry, and expression for cultural freedom. Dervesh was a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO and as a result of his political activism, faced house arrest and imprisonment. He was also the editor in chief and founder of the prestigious literary review Al Karmel.
Keywords: Diaspora, Eden, Identity, Palestine, Refugee, Resistance, Zionist., dervish, exile., intifada
The Impact of Exile on the Formation of Hyphenated Identities in Abu-Jaber’s Crescent (Published)
In Crescent (2003), Abu Jaber questions the meaning of identity in relation to exile. Sirine suspects if Hanif is drawn to the American or the Iraqi side of her, which immediately fractures identity into two conflicting aspects. She herself questions her identity as an Arab American. She wants to know which part of her identity defines her the most as she finds herself on the borderline between who she is and the way she appeals to Han. Her romance with Han opens her eyes to questions such as: Does she belong better in the Middle East where flavours, scents, pictures, and stories seem to be pulling her? Is she too American for Han? Do exiled people in this situation live in imaginary homes, or does guilt, as in Han’s case, become a defining factor that determines their hyphenated identities? This article addresses these questions. It examines how the notion of hyphenated identities inform the characters’ decisions and anxieties in the novel. What does the hyphen signify? In what ways can the novel be understood as a negation or an assertion of self-divided identity? In what ways does it celebrate and represent this hyphen that determines the diasporic condition.
Keywords: Diaspora, anglophone, crescent, exile., hyphenated, identities