Category: Poems

When Should You Arrive at Your Ithaca? Thinking about Cavafy, Gerald Durrell, Lawrence Durrell and Corfu (Boston Athenaeum, April 25, 10am)

I will be leading a discussion about Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals and Lawrence Durrell’s Prospero’s Cell at the Boston Athenaeum on April 25th. It’s interesting to come to the books by the two brothers again so many years after first reading them. I went through all Gerald’s books in middle school and Lawrence’s when I was in college.

On rereading them, Gerald’s book stands up: it’s charming and erudite. Lawrence’s is still excellent, but now the sexism is clear and, in a way, debilitating because you can now see what he missed. He wrote best in and about Greece. Although Caesar’s Vast Ghost is wonderful, nothing he wrote in France is as good as what was sparked by the more difficult landscapes of North Africa and Greece.

Rereading them makes me wonder, when is the best time to find your Ithaca? Both autobiographies recount their days on Corfu. But as Gerald is 12 years younger, he experienced Corfu as the background of a magical childhood. Lawrence, newly married, had the magic of first love in a perfect little beach house, complete with sailboat, good friends, excellent food, splendid weather and the time to write.

So is it better to have an enchanted childhood, and have those memories to fall back on, or perhaps lead you on, for all your life? Or better to have your glorious golden years in your early twenties? Cavafy famously urges you to arrive late in life:

When you set out for Ithaka

ask that your way be long,

full of adventure, full of instruction.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon – do not fear them:

such as these you will never find

as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare

emotion touch your spirit and your body.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon – you will not meet them

unless you carry them in your soul,

unless your soul raise them up before you.

 

Ask that your way be long.

At many a Summer dawn to enter

with what gratitude, what joy –

ports seen for the first time;

to stop at Phoenician trading centres,

and to buy good merchandise,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

and sensuous perfumes of every kind,

sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;

to visit many Egyptian cities,

to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.

Your arrival there is what you are destined for.

But don’t in the least hurry the journey.

Better it last for years,

so that when you reach the island you are old,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.

 

Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She hasn’t anything else to give you.

 

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you.

Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

When I read My Family I wished I lived on a Greek island, although I had a shorter, but similar, experience: as a child, I spents three weeks every year in the ruins of a sugar mill in the Caribbean. Reading Lawrence’s books in my late teens and early 20s helped pull me out into the world. I wanted to go to the places he described so I managed to get myself to Cairo, Alexandria, Athens, Corfu, Cyprus, Rhodes and other Greek islands, as well as his house in Sommières. But I didn’t find my Ithaca, the Dhofar region, until I was 39. Then I had to move away so I now agree with Cavafy. Arrive at your Ithaca late, so you never have to leave it.

 

Boston Athenaeum – April 25, 10am – https://bostonathenaeum.org/whats-on/discussion-groups/

Join us for a discussion of two very different books which feature the same landscape and main characters. Most people know only one of the Durrell brothers, but each one has his own brilliance. Lawrence writes about the historical and literary landscape in an artistic and serious manner, while Gerald focuses on the local wildlife, a group which includes his older siblings. The juxtapositions between what each one thinks is important and noteworthy makes reading the books in tandem a delight. Gerald doesn’t deign to mention his brother’s wife; Lawrence ignores the fauna. Gerald has nothing to say about Greek myths; Lawrence pretends he is not with his family. Read one book or both and join a short visit to the gorgeous Greek island of Corfu. If the conversation leads to a wider discussion of Lawrence’s fiction (The Alexandria Quartet), Gerald’s impressive improvements in how zoos are designed and the Boston area’s best Greek restaurants, all the better.

Back from Ubar or What to Read if You Insist on Staying Home

Research on Travelers and Tourists in Dhofar

Marriage and Peace – essay published

The Beauty of Beau Geste

 

Bibliography – Arabian Peninsula Literature: Fiction, Drama, Poetry and Secondary Sources

This is a selected bibliography of texts related to Arabian Peninsula/ Middle Eastern literature.

[writers who are underlined are major authors with many other publications]

Arabian Peninsula Writing

general

Akers, Deborah and Abubaker Bagader, eds. and trans. 2008. Oranges in the Sun: Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf. London: Lynne Rienner.

Alshammari, Shahd. 2017. Notes on the Flesh. Malta: Faraxa Publishing.

Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. 1988. The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. London: Kegan Paul International.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2016. Modern Literature of the Gulf. Bern: Peter Lang GmbH.

Meguid, Ibrahim Abdel. 2006. The Other Place. Farouk Abdel Wahab, trans. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.

Wilson, G. Willow. 2012. Alif the Unseen. New York, Grove Press.

also note:

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation [https://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/

Banipal Magazine [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/ ] which has special issues on specific countries, for example: Yemen [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/back_issues/73/issue-36/ ]

Emirates

Al Murr, Mohammad. 2008. Dubai Tales. Peter Clark and Jack Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

—. 1998. “The Wink of the Mona Lisa” and Other Stories from the Gulf. Jack Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Al-Suwaidi, Thani. The Diesel.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. 2009. In a Fertile Desert: Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Krishnadas. 2007. Dubai Puzha: When Seagulls Fly Over Dubai Creek. ‎Thrissur, Kerala: Green Books.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2012. Modern Literature of the United Arab Emirates. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press.

Unnikrishnan, Deepak. Temporary People.

Kuwait

Abulhawa, Susan. 2020. Against the Loveless World.

Al Nakib, Mai. 2023. An Unlasting Home. Mariner Books: New York.

Alsanousi, Saud. The Bamboo Stalk.

Oman

Al Farsi, Abdulaziz. 2013. Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs: A Modern Omani Novel. Nancy Roberts, trans. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press.

Alharthi, Jokha. 2019. Celestial Bodies. Marilyn Booth, trans. New York: Catapult.

Hamed, Huda. I Saw Her in my Dreams.

Ibrahim, Sonallah. 2001. Warda. Hosam Aboul-Ela, trans. Yale University Press: New Haven.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2002. Modern Poetry and Prose of Oman. Krakow: The Enigma Press.

Saudi

Al-Khamis, Omaima Abdullah. Al-Bahriyat.

Alireza, Marianne. 2002. At the Drop of a Veil.

Alsanea, Rajaa. 2007. Girls of Riyadh. London: Penguin.

Benyamin. 2021. Goat Days. Joseph Koyippally, trans. Efinito.

Ferraris, Zoe. 2008. Finding Noof. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: New York.

—. 2010.  City of Veils. New York: Little Brown.

—. 2012. Kingdom of Strangers. New York: Little Brown.

Munif, ‘Abd al-Rahman. 1989. Cities of Salt. Peter Theroux, trans. Random House: New York.

Yemen

‘Abd al-Wali, Mohammad. They Die Strangers.

Ba-Amer, Salih. 1988. “Dancing by the Light of the Moon,” in The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. S. K. Jayyusi, ed. London: Kegan Paul International. 318-22.

Bajaber, Khadija Abdalla. 2021. House of Rust.

Dammaj, Zayd Mutee. 1994. The Hostage. Interlink Books: Northampton, MA.

Hunter, Barry Stewart. 2017. Aden.

Classical/ Pre-Modern Fiction and Poetry

Allen, Roger. 2005. The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of its Genres and Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Arberry, A.J. 1965. Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Farrin, Raymond. 2011. Abundance from the Desert: Classical Arabic Poetry. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Irwin, R. 2002. Night and Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature. New York: Anchor.

Sells, M., trans. 1989. Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes by Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, Antara, Al-Asha and Dhu al-Rumma. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Folk/fairy tales

Al Taie, Hatim and Joan Pickersgill. 2008. Omani Folk Tales. Muscat, Oman: Al Roya Press and Publishing House.

al-Thahab, Khadija bint Alawi. 2012/ Stories of My Grandmother. W. Scott Chahanovich, ed. Washington, D.C:  Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center.

Behnam, Mariam. 2001. Heirloom: Evening Tales from the East. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

ElMahi, Ali Tigani and Ahmed Mohamed al Khatheri. 2015. “A Folk Story from Dhofar: A Pathway to Indigenous Knowledge.” Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 6.2: 5-12. DOI:10.24200/jass.vol6iss2

Hamad, Abdulsalam. 2006. Omani Folk Tales. Seeb: Al-Dhamri Bookshop.

Johnstone, T.M. 1974. “Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra.” Arabian Studies 1: 7-24.

Johnstone, T.M. 1983. “Folk-Tales and Folk-lore of Dhofar.” Journal of Oman Studies 6.1: 123-127.

—. 1978. “A St. George of Dhofar.” Arabian Studies 4: 59-65.

—. 1974. “Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra.” Arabian Studies 1: 7-24.

Kamal, M. 1999. Juha: Last of the Errant Knights. J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Mershen, Birgit. 2004. “Ibn Muqaarab and Naynuh: A Folk-tale from Tiwi.” Journal of Oman Studies 13: 91-97.

Paine, Patty, Jesse Ulmer and Michael Hersrud, eds. 2013. The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf.  Highclere, Berkshire: Berkshire Academic Press.

Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange. 2014. Malcome Lyons, trans. London: Penguin.

Todino-Gonguet, Grace. Halimah and the Snake, and other Omani Folk Tales. 2008. London: Stacey International.

Wilson, G. Willow. 2012. Alif the Unseen. New York, Grove Press.

Poetry

al Hajri, Hilal. 2014. The Night is Mine. Khalid al Balushi. trans. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

Al Balushi, Khalid, ed. and trans. 2016. Contemporary Omani Poetry in English. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

Handal, N., ed. 2001. The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. New York: Interlink.

Johnstone, T. M. 1972. “The Language of Poetry in Dhofar.” The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35.1: 1-17.

Morris, Miranda. 1985. “A Poem in Jibbali.” Journal of Oman Studies 7: 121-30.

Arabic/ Islamic Drama, Fiction and Poetry

Al Aswany, Alaa. 2006. The Yacoubian Building (Egypt). Harper: New York.

Alghosaibi, Ghazi. 1996. An Apartment Called Freedom (Egypt). Leslie McLoughlin, trans. Kegan Paul.

Al-Hakim, T. 1981. Plays, Prefaces and Postscripts of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Volume One. W. M. Hutchins, trans. Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press.

Carlson, M, ed. 2005. The Arab Oedipus: Four plays. New York: Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications.

Charara, H, ed. 2008. Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab-American Poetry. Fayetteville, AK: The University of Arkansas Press.

Elmusa, S. 2008. Flawed Landscape: Poems 1987-2008. Northhampton, MA: Interlink.

Husni, R. and Newman, D., eds. 2008. Modern Arabic Short Stories: A Bilingual Reader. London: Saqi.

Johnson-Davies, Denys. ed. 2006. The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction. New York: Anchor Books/ Random House.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. 1994. Arabic Short Stories. Berkeley: University of CA Press.

Kabbani, Nizar. 1999. Arabian Love Poems. B. K. Franieh and C. R. Brown, trans. London: Lynne Rienner.

Kahf, M. 2003. E-mails from Scheherazade. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Kaldas, P. and Mattawa, K, eds. 2009. Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. Fayetteville, AK: The University of Arkansas Press.

Kamal, M. 1999. Juha: Last of the Errant Knights. J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Kanafani, Ghassan. 1998. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories. Hilary Kilpatrick, trans. Boulder: ‎Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Mahfouz, Naguib. 1990. The Cairo Trilogy. Doubleday: New York.

Mersal, I. 2008. These are not Oranges, My Love. Riverdale, NY: Sheep Meadow Press.

Nye, N. S. 2002. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York: Greenwillow.

—., ed. 1996. This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World. New York: Aladdin.

Qabbani, Nizar. 2006. On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani. Lena Jayyusi and Sharif Elmusa. trans. Northampton, MA: Interlink Publishing.

Salih, Tayeb. 1995. “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World. Arthur Biddle, ed. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ: Blair Press. 512-522.

Washburn, K. and Major, J, eds. 1998. World Poetry. New York, W.W. Norton.

Williams, D. 1993. Traveling Mercies. Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books.

Literature/ language/ multi-cultural learning

Al Harthi, A. 2005. “Distance Higher Education Experiences of Arab Gulf Students in the United States: A Cultural Perspective.”  International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 6.3: 1-14.

Amin-Zaki, Amel. 1996. “Religious and Cultural Considerations in Translating Shakespeare into Arabic,” in Between Language and Cultures: Translation and Cross-Cultural Texts. Anuradha Dingwaney and Carol Maier, eds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 223-44.

Baer, Brian James. 2020. “From Cultural Translation to Untranslatability – من الترجمة الثقافية إلى استحالة الترجمة: Theorizing Translation outside Translation Studies.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 40: 139-63.

Bell, Duncan. 2003. “Mythscapes: Memory, Mythology, and National Identity.” The British Journal of Sociology 54.1: 63-81.

Booth, Marilyn. 2010. “‘The Muslim Woman’ as Celebrity Author and the Politics of Translating Arabic: Girls of Riyadh Go on the Road.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 6.3: 149-82.

Boyd, F. 2002. “Conditions, Concessions, and the Many Tender Mercies of Learning through Multicultural Literature.” Reading Research and Instruction 42.1: 58-92.

Brooks, W. 2006. “Reading Representation of Themselves.” Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 372-392.

Gatling, Benjamin. 2020, Summer. “There Isn’t Belief, Just Believing: Rethinking Belief as a Keyword of Folklore Studies.” The Journal of American Folklore 133.529: 307-28.

Grosjean, François. 2015. “Bicultural Bilinguals.” International Journal of Bilingualism 19.5: 572–86.

Halstead, J. M. 2004. “An Islamic Concept of Education.” Comparative Education 40: 517-29.

Heble, Ayesha. 2007. “Teaching Literature On-line to Arab students: Using Technology to Overcome Cultural Restrictions.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 6.2: 219-226.

Jabra, Jabra. 1980. “Modern Arabic Literature and the West,” in Critical Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature. Issa Boullata, ed. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press. 8-20.

Mazawi, Andreas. 2010. “Naming the Imaginary: ‘Building an Arab Knowledge Society’ and the Contested Terrain of Educational Reform for Development,” in Trajectories of Education in the Arab World: Legacies and Challenges. Osama Abin-Mershed, ed. London: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Routledge.

McDermott, Ray and Varenne, Herve. 2007. “Reconstructing Culture in Educational Research,” in Innovations in Educational Ethnography, G. Spindler and L. Hammond, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3-31.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2006. “The Mosaic of Quotations and the Labyrinth of Interpretations: The Problems of Intertextuality in the Modern Literature of the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 187-200.

Ogulnick, K. 2005. “Learning Language/ Learning Self,” in Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings. S. Kiesling and C. Bratt Paulston, eds. Oxford: Blackwell. 250-4.

Ramsey, Gail. 2006. “The Past in the Present: Aspects of Intertextuality in Modern Literature in the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 161-86.

—. 2004. “Confining the Guest Labourers to the Realm of the Subaltern in Modern Literature from the Gulf. Orientalia Succana, 53: 133-42.

Stadnicki, Roman. 2023. “Branding Backlash: The Erring of Urban Advertising in Gulf Cities,” in Branding the Middle East: Communication Strategies and Image Building from Qom to Casablanca. Steffen Wippel, ed. Berlin: De Gruyter. 497-516.

Zemrani, Aziza, Deborah L. Trent and Sawsan Abutabenjeh. 2020, Dec. “Cultural Competency Teaching and Practice in the MENA.” AlMuntaqa 3.2: 64-7.

Webb, Allen. 2012. Teaching the Literature of Today’s Middle East. London: Routledge.

Using Creative Writing Prompts in Foreign Language Learning

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

Navigating without Language

Poems

Poem: “For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper,” Joesph Fasano

“For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper,” Joseph Fasano

Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are you trying
to be free of?
The living? The miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

****

“Sudden Hymn in Winter,” Joseph Fasano

What if, after years
of trial,
a love should come
and lay a hand upon you
and say,
this late,
your life is not a crime

Two poems for courage: “Against Hesitation” by Charles Rafferty and “Thalassa” by Louis MacNeice

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

Poems – “Finding Poems for my Students” by Mohja Kahf

Poems

Two poems for courage: “Against Hesitation” by Charles Rafferty and “Thalassa” by Louis MacNeice

“Against Hesitation,” by Charles Rafferty

If you stare at it long enough

the mountain becomes unclimbable.

Tally it up. How much time have you spent

waiting for the soup to cool?

Icicles hang from January gutters

only as long as they can. Fingers pause

above piano keys for the chord

that will not form. Slam them down

I say. Make music of what you can.

Some people stop at the wrong corner

and waste a dozen years hoping

for directions. I can’t be them.

Tell every girl I’ve ever known

I’m coming to break her door down,

that my teeth will clench

the simple flower I only knew

not to give … Ah, how long did I stand

beneath the eaves believing the storm

would stop? It never did.

And there is lightning in me still

“Thalassa,” Louis MacNeice

Run out the boat, my broken comrades;

Let the old seaweed crack, the surge

Burgeon oblivious of the last

Embarkation of feckless men,

Let every adverse force converge–

Here we must needs embark again.

Run up the sail, my heartsick comrades;

Let each horizon tilt and lurch–

You know the worst: your wills are fickle,

Your values blurred, your hearts impure

And your past life a ruined church–

But let your poison be your cure.

Put out to sea, ignoble comrades,

Whose record shall be noble yet;

Butting through scarps of moving marble

The narwhal dares us to be free;

By a high star our course is set,

Our end is Life. Put out to sea.

My Job

Reflections on Ethnographic Research in Dhofar Oman

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

Antigone and Ismene – Making Difficult Choices

Two poems about nature and rest: “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry and “Sleeping in The Forest,” Mary Oliver

Two poems about nature and rest: “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry and “Sleeping in The Forest,” Mary Oliver

“Sleeping in The Forest,” Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

“The Peace of Wild Things,” Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free

Reflections/ Research on Teaching Cultural Studies and Literature

Selected Bibliography: Primary and Secondary Texts for Literature Teachers on the Arabian Peninsula

Suggestions for Literature Teachers in the Middle East

Two poems for spring: “Dear March – Come in” by Emily Dickinson and “March” by Goethe

“March,” Goethe

 

Look, it’s snowed for hours,

The time is not yet right,

For all the little flowers,

For all the little flowers,

To fill our hearts with light.

The sunlight is deceiving,

Mild but false it shone,

Even the swallow’s cheating,

Even the swallow’s cheating,

Why? He comes alone!

Alone, could I be happy

Even though spring is near?

But if you were with me,

But if you were with me,

Suddenly summer’s there.

“Dear March – Come in,” Emily Dickinson

Dear March – Come in –

How glad I am –

I hoped for you before –

Put down your Hat –

You must have walked –

How out of Breath you are –

Dear March, how are you, and the Rest –

Did you leave Nature well –

Oh March, Come right upstairs with me –

I have so much to tell –

I got your Letter, and the Birds –

The Maples never knew that you were coming –

I declare – how Red their Faces grew –

But March, forgive me –

And all those Hills you left for me to Hue –

There was no Purple suitable –

You took it all with you –

Who knocks? That April –

Lock the Door –

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

Foodways and Literature – Animal Poems

Foodways and Literature – Food Stories and Poems

Literature and Ethnography

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

“Atlas,” by U. A. Fanthorpe, from Safe as Houses

 

[Atlas is the Greek God who holds up the sky]

 

There is a kind of love called maintenance

Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;

 

Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget

The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

 

Which answers letters; which knows the way

The money goes; which deals with dentists

 

And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,

And postcards to the lonely; which upholds

 

The permanently rickety elaborate

Structures of living, which is Atlas.

 

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,

Which knows what time and weather are doing

To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;

Laughs at my dry rotten jokes; remembers

My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps

My suspect edifice upright in air,

As Atlas did the sky.

 

“The Function of Poetry” by Billy Collins

Reflections/ Research on Teaching Cultural Studies and Literature

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching, part 1

 

U.A. Fanthorpe

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ua-fanthorpe

U A Fanthorpe

Selected Fiction (Novels and Short Stories) – Arabian Peninsula

A history-focused Whatsapp group I belong to recently had a discussion which elicited numerous suggestions about fictional works set on the Arabian Peninsula. I am including the works mentioned below along with some texts I have taught in my literature classes and/ or used for my research.

Anthologies

Akers, Deborah and Abubaker Bagader, eds. and trans. 2008. Oranges in the Sun: Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf. London: Lynne Rienner.

Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. 1988. The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. London: Kegan Paul International.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2016. Modern Literature of the Gulf. Bern: Peter Lang GmbH.

Pedagogy

Heble, Ayesha. 2007. “Teaching Literature On-line to Arab students: Using Technology to Overcome Cultural Restrictions.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 6.2: 219-226.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2006. “The Mosaic of Quotations and the Labyrinth of Interpretations: The Problems of Intertextuality in the Modern Literature of the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 187-200.

Ramsey, Gail. 2006. “The Past in the Present: Aspects of Intertextuality in Modern Literature in the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 161-86.

—. 2004. “Confining the Guest Labourers to the Realm of the Subaltern in Modern Literature from the Gulf. Orientalia Succana, 53: 133-42.

Webb, Allen. 2012. Teaching the Literature of Today’s Middle East. London: Routledg

Short stories/ novels

‘Abd al-Majd / Abde Meguid, Ibrahim. The Other Place.

Algosaibi, Ghazi. An Apartment Called Freedom.

Alshammari, Shahd. Notes on the Flesh.

Wilson, G. Willow. 2012. Alif the Unseen. New York, Grove Press.

Oman

Al-Farsi, Abdulaziz. 2013. Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs: A Modern Omani Novel. Trans. Nancy Roberts. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press.

Al-Harthi, Jokha. Celestial Bodies

Hamed, Huda. I Saw Her in my Dreams.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2002. Modern Poetry and Prose of Oman. Krakow: The Enigma Press.

UAE

Al‑Murr, M. 1998. “The Wink of the Mona Lisa” and Other Stories from the Gulf. J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: United Arab Emirates: Motivate Publishing.

—. 2008. Dubai Tales. P. Clark and J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Al-Suwaidi, Thani. The Diesel.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. 2009. In a Fertile Desert: Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.

Krishnadas. 2007. Dubai Puzha.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2012. Modern Literature of the United Arab Emirates. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press.

Unnikrishnan, Deepak. Temporary People.

Kuwait

Abulhawa, Susan. 2020. Against the Loveless World.

Al-Nakib, Mai. 2022. An Unlasting Home.

Alsanousi, Saud. The Bamboo Stalk.

Saudi

Aima, Rahel. Moon Rose – short story https://www.eflux.com/architecture/cascades/400332/moon-rose/

Al-Khamis, Omaima Abdullah. Al-Bahriyat.

al-Sanea, Rajaa. Girls of Riyadh.

Alireza, Marianne. 2002. At the Drop of a Veil.

Alwan, Mohammed. 1988. “Love and Rain” in The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. London: Kegan Paul International. 302-306.

Benyamin. Goat Days.

Ferraris, Zoe. Finding Noof. 2008. New York: Little Brown, 2012. (also Kingdom of Strangers and City of Veils)

Munif, Abdul Rahman. Cities of Salt.

Yemen

‘Abd al-Wali, Mohammad. They Die Strangers.

Ba-Amer, Salih. 1988. “Dancing by the Light of the Moon,” in The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. S. K. Jayyusi, ed. London: Kegan Paul International. 318-22.

Bajaber, Khadija Abdalla. 2021. House of Rust.

Dammaj, Zayd Mutee’. The Hostage.

Hunter, Barry Stewart Hunter. 2017. Aden.

Fairy/ Folk Tales

Al Taie, Hatim and Joan Pickersgill. 2008. Omani Folk Tales. Muscat, Oman: Al Roya Press and Publishing House.

Al Thahab, Khadija bint Alawi. 2012. Stories of My Grandmother. [Dhofari] Trans. W. Scott Chahanovich. Washington, D.C:  Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center.

ElMahi, Ali Tigani and Ahmed Mohamed al Khatheri. 2015. “A Folk Story from Dhofar: A Pathway to Indigenous Knowledge.” Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 6.2: 5-12. DOI:10.24200/jass.vol6iss2

Hamad, Abdulsalam. Omani Folk Tales. 2006. Seeb: Al-Dhamri Bookshop.

Johnstone, T.M. 1974. “Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra.” Arabian Studies 1: 7-24.

Johnstone, T.M. 1978. “A St. George of Dhofar.” Arabian Studies 4: 59-65.

Johnstone, T. M. 1983.“Folk-Tales and Folk-lore of Dhofar.” Journal of Oman Studies 6.1: 123-127.

Mershen, Birgit. 2004. “Ibn Muqaarab and Naynuh: A Folk-tale from Tiwi.” Journal of Oman Studies 13: 91-97.

Paine, Patty, Jesse Ulmer and Michael Hersrud, eds. 2013. The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf.  Highclere, Berkshire: Berkshire Academic Press.

Todino-Gonguet, Grace. 2008. Halimah and the Snake, and other Omani Folk Tales. London: Stacey International.

Also of interest

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation [https://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/ ]

Banipal Magazine [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/ ] which has special issues on specific countries, for example: Yemen [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/back_issues/73/issue-36/ ]

Literature and Ethnography

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

Reflections/ Research on Teaching Cultural Studies and Literature

Foodways and Literature – Food Stories and Poems

Foodways and Literature – Animal Poems

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

There is a profound joy in introducing students to classic texts. I am very grateful that I have spent so much of my working life among the splendors of ancient Greek plays, Romantic Era poets, Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde.

And I am happy that as I teach I have gotten better at choosing classics which speak to my students, from 20th century writers such as Tawfiq al-Hakim to more modern writers such as Mohammed Al Murr and Badriyah al Bashar. And it’s fun help them get over the newness of Moushegh Ishkhan, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Ryszard Krynicki, T’ao Yuan Ming, Tomas Tranströmer and Wisława Szymborska.

When I start the poetry class, I know that there is at least one student will be blown away by the Cold Mountain poems, Basho, Mary Oliver, Naomi Shihab Nye or Fowziyah Abu-Khalid. Someone will fall in love with  “Embroidered Memory” by Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis; someone else will champion “About Mount Uludag” by Nazim Hikmet.

It’s a delight to read familiar lines and see how students relate to familiar characters. Who is going to defend Ismene this semester? Who will argue on Creon’s behalf? Who is going to laugh when Patty in Quality Street talks about her hopefulness?  If we read Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, who will my students pick as the one who deserves Chris – Kitty, Margaret or Jenny?

At the same time, it is good for me to be in the position of not knowing, to remember how it feels to be confused by a text. I became a better teacher after I spent two summers studying Arabic in Muscat. Sitting in a classroom as a student, panicking when a teacher asked me a question I did not understand, studying for a test and waiting anxiously for my grade made me more understanding of my own students.

So I try to seek out new texts to read and, perhaps, use for teaching. I scan shelves in bookstores and ask friends for suggestions. Since I don’t know Spanish writers, I asked a friend who has expertise and, following her suggestions, found “Marta Alvarado, History Professor” by Marjorie Agosín and “New Clothes” by Julia Alvarez, as well as “Tula” and “Turtle Came to See Me” by Margarita Engle.

Over the past few years, I have realized that I few students are into K-pop (BTS! Blackpink! Twice! NCT!) and so I decided to dip a toe into that cultural tradition.

The easiest way to start was movies so I duly looked at “top 10 Korean movie” lists and rented The Man from Nowhere (2010). One review mentioned that it was similar to Léon: The Professional (1994) in that it involved a young girl who is taken in and protected by a hired assassin. I thought knowing the plot would help me but there were a lot of differences, making the movie both interesting and confusing. For example, the ending surprised me. At the end of Léon, the girl is re-enrolled at her boarding school and she finally plants the small tree that she has been carrying around with her, symbolizing that she is now rooted.

At the end of The Man from Nowhere, the anti-hero asks the police for one favor and he brings the young girl he has been trying to protect back to her old neighborhood, goes into a small convenience store and buys her some composition books, writing supplies and a back-pack. Then he asks her if she will be ok. She nods, they hug and then he turns to go back into the police car.

I stared at the screen in astonishment. “That’s the end?!?” I wondered. Her father left long ago, her mother died at the start of the film, the girl was kidnapped and brutally treated for weeks, and now, with a few stationary supplies, the girl is now alone and supposed to take care of herself?

Over the next few weeks, I watched a few more and was astounded by whole new levels of plotting. It often feels like I am watching several movies at one: Assassination (2015) has freedoms fighters betrayed by team members (shades of Guns of Navarone), funny but doomed killers (shades of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and twin sisters on opposite sides of an immense cultural, educational and temperamental divide (a grown-up, super spy equivalent of the Parent Trap).

I am often bewildered as I try out comedies, historical fiction and modern thrillers such as The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Masquerade (2012), The Villainess (2017) and War of the Arrows (2011).

It takes a lot of concentration to understand each movie, not because of the sub-titles but the  work of trying to create new templates and figure out new tropes. How can I visually tell the difference between good guys and bad guys? Is the behavior of this woman showing that she is good or bad? Does this style of house indicate that the owners are rich, poor, old-fashioned or trend-setters? Is the meal the characters being served haute cuisine or everyday fare? Is this behavior normal or odd?

Sometimes it is good to be lost.

A beautiful poem for the beginning of Ramadan

“Red Brocade,” Naomi Shihab Nye

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.

Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.

No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.

I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.