The Implicit Place in the Poem “She Has Not Come” by Mahmoud Darwish (Published)
‘Place’ is one of the pillars that cannot be neglected or overtaken in any study of any literary text that tries to be characterized as inclusive and methodological. Studies about place in literary works have abounded, and the terms that are specific to the study of place have become numerous, such as narrative space, literary space, geo-space, textual space and many other terms. In contrast, studies have shown that place is not limited to geographical space and geometric dimension, but includes abstract relationships, feelings and emotions as well as the poet’s own mental stock. This study focuses on showing the special particularity of the element of place in Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “She Has Not Come”[1] from his collection of poetry, Ka-Zahr al-Lawz aw Aba’ad / almond blossom or beyond [2]. It is a poem that is devoid of any word that expresses a geographical, physical or geometric place. What we find in it, instead, are phrases of placement whose connotations reflect the implicit place and the intersecting, polarized binaries, representing the inner self, such as identifying directions and employing spatial attributes. The study reveals how these connotations are key to the contents of the poem and the fluctuations in the lyrical speaker’s reactions to the absence or absenteeism of the beloved. Thus, we find it a way to forget; an outlet to unload anger; and a way to punish the beloved.
Keywords: "Ka-Zahr al-Lawz aw Aba'ad", Mahmoud Darwish, Spatial Space, implicit place, place indications., spatial attributes
Memory, Exile and Identity: A Negotiated Post-Apartheid South Africa in John Kani’s nothing But the Truth (Published)
Memory, exile and identity are part of the psychical configurations that embody the experience of man within the spatial location he occupies and that in which he achieves rigmarole of the performances of different activities akin to the idea of the ‘Waiting for Godot’. Exile has precipitated memories which invariably mould and reconstruct identities, rendering them fluid and malleable. This paper examines the invention and reinvention of memory in John Kani’s Nothing But the Truth (2002) as it affects how justice is perceived and how reconciliation and forgiveness are issued. It also investigates how Kani’s characters navigate the murky waters of a conflated experience in dual identities, informed by exile, and how shifts and adjustments are made to accommodate the products of crossed borders to achieve a resounding reconciliation, having blurred, repressed, or better still, obliterated the dictates and vestiges of the wounded past. It is inferred, therefore, that the reconstruction of the unpalatable past will engender concrete cohesion beyond all existing divides in a new South Africa provided remorse is shown for past deeds and individual identity subsumed under the national identity.
Keywords: Identity, Memory., New South Africa, Remorse, Spatial Space