Sakr, Rita
(2007)
Negotiating Post-War Lebanese Literature: A Conversation with Rashid al-Daif.
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 43 (3).
pp. 278-285.
ISSN 1744-9855
Abstract
Rashid al-Daif is one of Lebanon’s most prominent and prolific writers. Born in 1945,
al-Daif is a novelist, poet, and Professor of Modern Arabic Literature (with a doctorate
from France) at the Lebanese University in West Beirut. Eight of al-Daif’s 13 works of
fiction (12 novels and one collection of short stories), originally published in Arabic,
have been translated into English and/or French as well as into other languages. English
translations include Azizi as-Sayyid Kawabata (1999; Dear Mr Kawabata), Fusha Mustahdafa bayna n-Nu’as wa n-Nawm (2001; Passage to Dusk), Nahiyat al-Bara’a (2001; This Side of
Innocence), and Lernin Inglish (2007; Learning English). Published in 1995, al-Daif’s Azizi
as-Sayyid Kawabata has been one of the dramatic moments of contemporary post-war
Lebanese literature. After being selected as part of the European Cultural Foundation’s
“Mémoires de la Méditerranée” series, it was immediately translated into English, French,
German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Dutch. Al-Daif has also published three
volumes of poetry and a number of papers and articles on the Lebanese novel and on the
subject of intercultural dialogue. His novel Fusha Mustahdafa bayna n-Nu’as wa n-Nawm
(2001, Passage to Dusk) was made by Simon Edelstein into a movie entitled Passage au
crépuscule (Geneva, 2000); and another novel, Tistifil Meryl Streep [2001; Meryl Streep Can
Suit Herself], was the subject of a play by Algerian-French writer Mohammed Qasimi,
produced by Nidal Achqar in Arabic and French in 2006. Al-Daif’s work has attracted
numerous critical articles and books, by Samira Aghacy, Stefan G. Meyer, Ken Seigneurie,
Paul Starkey, Mona Takieddine Amyuni, Edgar Weber among others. These focus
particularly on the dynamics and politics of al-Daif’s simple style and language, his use
of autobiographical details, the role of place and space in his writings, and their representations
of the reality or surreality of war.
Sakr, who is currently writing a doctoral thesis partly on al-Daif’s works,
interviewed1 the writer in City Café, one of al-Daif’s favourite haunts in the Lebanese
capital Beirut, on 11 January and again on 20 March 2007. Both English and Lebanese
Arabic were used during the interview and Rashid al-Daif subsequently approved the
English translation.
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
