Iterations of loss : mutilation and aesthetic form, Al-Shidyaq to Darwish

363 Pages·2015·2.69 MB·English

by  Sacks

Iterations of Loss

Iterations of Loss
mutilation and aesthetic form,
al-shidyaq to darwish
Jeffrey Sacks
fordham university press New York 2015
this book is made possible by a collaborative grant
from the andrew w. mellon foundation.
Copyright © 2015 Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Visit us online at www.fordhampress.com.
The image of the painting by Ahmed Cherkaoui that appears as a frontispiece to this
book and on its cover is reproduced with the permission of Hassan Ezzaim, Director of
Fondation ONA (Rabat).
Passages that appear in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of this book have been published in diacritics
37.4 (2007) and are reproduced here with the permission of Johns Hopkins University
Press. Portions of Chapter 3 have been published in an article, “Falling into Pieces,
Or Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq and Literary History: A Love Letter” (Middle Eastern
Literatures 16.3 [2013]), and are reproduced here with the permission of © Taylor
and Francis. The article may be accessed on line at the following address: http://www.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1475262X.2013.891392#.U77w2UDPYZQ.
Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some
content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sacks, Jeffrey.
Iterations of loss : mutilation and aesthetic form, Al-Shidyaq to Darwish / Jeffrey
Sacks. — First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-6494-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8232-6495-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Psychic trauma in literature. 2. Violence in literature. 3. Arab-Israeli conflict—
Literature and the conflict. 4. Arabic literature—19th century—History and criticism.
5. Arabic literature—20th century—History and criticism. 6. Hebrew literature—20th
century—History and criticism. I. Title.
PJ7519.P78S33 2014
892.7’09—dc23
2014030502
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
for Leah, Leila, Bella

contents
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Translation and Transliteration xv
Introduction: Loss 1
1. Citation 23
2. Philologies 77
Excursus: Names 146
3. Repetition 159
4. Literature 197
Notes 227
Bibliography 295
Index 341

abbreviations
A Mahmoud Darwish. Ahada ‘ashara kawkaban. Beirut:
Dar al-Jadid, 1992.
AB Mahmoud Darwish. ‘Abirun fi kalam ‘abir. Beirut: Dar al-
‘Awda, 1994.
AF Mahmoud Darwish. Athar al-farasha. Beirut: Riyad al-
Rayyes, 2008.
B Elias Khoury. Bab al-shams. Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 1998.
Tr. Humphry Davies as Gate of the Sun. New York: Archi-
pelago, 2006.
F Taha Husayn. Fi al-shi‘r al-jahili. Susa, Tunis: Dar al-
Ma‘arif, [1926] 1998.
FH Mahmoud Darwish. Fi hadrat al-ghiyab. Beirut: Riyad al-
Rayyes, 2006.
FS Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq. Kitab al-saq ‘ala al-saq fi ma
huwwa al-Fariyaq, aw ayam wa shuhur wa a‘wam fi ‘ajam
al-‘Arab wa al-a‘jam. Paris: Benjamin Duprat, 1855.
G Jacques Derrida. Glas. Paris: Galilée, 1974. Tr. John P.
Leavey and Richard Rand as Glas. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1986.
H Mahmoud Darwish. Hisar li mada’ih al-bahr. Beirut: Dar
al-‘Awda, 1984.
I Shimon Ballas. Iya. In Otot stav, 9–50. Tel Aviv: Zmora-
Bitan, 1992. Tr. Susan Einbinder as Iya. In Keys to the
Garden: New Israeli Writing, ed. Ammiel Alcalay, 69–99.
San Francisco: City Lights, 1996.
IK Taha Husayn. Falsafat Ibn Khaldun al-ijtima‘iyya. Tr.
Muhammad ‘Inan. Cairo: Matba‘at al-I‘timad, 1925.
x Abbreviations
J Mahmoud Darwish. Jidariyya. Beirut: Riyad al-Rayyes,
2000.
K Mahmoud Darwish. Ka zahr al-lawz aw ab‘ad. Beirut:
Riyad al-Rayyes, 2005.
L Mahmoud Darwish. Limadha tarakta al-hisana wahi-
dan? Beirut: Riyad al-Rayyes, 1995. Tr. J. Sacks as Why
Did You Leave the Horse Alone? New York: Archipelago,
2006.
LT Mahmoud Darwish. La ta‘tadhir ‘amma fa‘alta. Beirut:
Riyad al-Rayyes, 2004.
M Theodor Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem
beschädigten Leben. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,
[1951] 1969. Tr. E. F. N. Jephcott as Minima Moralia:
Reflections from Damaged Life. London and New York:
Verso, 1974.
MA Edmond Amran El Maleh. Mille ans, un jour. Paris: La
Pensée Sauvage, 1986.
P Jacques Derrida. La carte postal: De Socrate à Freud et
au-delà. Paris: Flammarion, 1980. Tr. Alan Bass as The
Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1987.
SG Mahmoud Darwish. Sarir al-ghariba. Beirut: Riyad al-
Rayyes, 1999.
SL Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq. Sirr al-layali fi al-qalb wa al-
ibdali. Ed. and introd. Muhammad al-Hadi bin al-Tahir
al-Mutawwi. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, [1867] 2006.
SM Jacques Derrida. Spectres de Marx: L’état de la dette,
le travail de deuil at la nouvelle Internationale. Paris:
Galilée, 1993. Tr. Peggy Kamuf as Specters of Marx: The
State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New
International. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Y Mahmoud Darwish. Yawmiyyat al-huzn al-‘adi. Beirut:
Dar al-‘Awda, [1973] 2007.