Lisa Marchi - The Funambulists

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Copyright 2022 by Syracuse University Press

Syracuse, New York 13244-5290

All Rights Reserved

First Edition 2022

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ISBN: 978-0-8156-3755-4 (hardcover)

978-0-8156-3752-3 (paperback)

978-0-8156-5547-3 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Marchi, Lisa, author.

Title: The funambulists : women poets of the Arab diaspora / Lisa Marchi.

Description: First edition. | Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2022. | Series: Gender, culture, and politics in the Middle East | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022012340 (print) | LCCN 2022012341 (ebook) | ISBN 9780815637554 (hardcover ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780815637523 (paperback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780815655473 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Poetry, ModernWomen authorsHistory and criticism. | Poetry, ModernArab authorsHistory and criticism. | Women and literature. | LCGFT: Literary criticism.

Classification: LCC PN1091 .M37 2022 (print) | LCC PN1091 (ebook) | DDC 809.1/99287089927dc23/eng/20220509

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012340

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012341

Manufactured in the United States of America

To Beirut and its worldly-wise people, for granting me each time the beauty of a new beginning

...

.

/

[ [

By travelling freely across cultures

those in search of the human essence

may find a space for all to sit....

Here a margin advances. Or a center

retreats. Where East is not strictly east,

and West is not strictly west,

where identity is open onto plurality,

not a fort or a trench/

Mahmoud Darwish, Edward Said: A Contrapuntual Reading

This book benefited from the knowledge, support, and encouragement of many colleagues and friends. My greatest debt goes to Giovanna Covi for years of friendship, guidance, and close collaboration. I wish to acknowledge the University of Trento, Department of Humanities, for providing funding and support services for the development of this book, and the permanent poetry seminar SEMPER directed by Pietro Taravacci and Francesco Zambon for being a stimulating arena for discussion. The JFK Institute at the Free University in Berlin offered a research grant that proved invaluable for the realization of this project, while the Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt University granted time and space to develop this study. I thank both institutions for their support.

Many of the questions explored in this book have been inspired by the colloquia and seminars organized by Giorgio Mariani and Donatella Izzo at the OASIS Summer School (University of Naples, LOrientale) on the Island of Procida. My participation to the international research groups Behind the Looking Glass: Other-Cultures-Within Translating Cultures and Out of the Ordinary: Challenging Commonplace in Anglophone Literature offered inspiring insights and exchanges. I am grateful to Joan Anim-Addo (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Joel Kuortti (Turku University, Finland) for inviting me to join these groups.

This project would not have been possible without the support and generosity of friends and colleagues in Beirut and abroad. I wish to thank the staff at the AUB (in particular Carla Chalhoub) and at the OIB for facilitating my library access during the days of the revolution. My warmest gratitude to Rula Jurdi Abisaab, Gerardo Acerenza, Pirjo Ahokas, Hazim Alabdullah, Elisabetta Benigni, Andrea Carosso, Tamara T. Chin, Cristina Dozio, Ira Dworkin, Amina Elhalawani, Leela Gandhi, Nathalie Handal, Sirne H. Harb, Michelle Hartman, Rana Issa, Mina Karavanta, Musa Khamushi, William G. Martin, Henry Matthews, Samuela Pagani, Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, Fatima Sai, Cinzia Schiavini, and Mirella Vallone for their encouragement and support. I owe special thanks to Georges Abou-Hsab and Prashant Keshavmurthy for their enduring friendship, generous reading, and insightful comments on earlier drafts of some of the chapters included in this book. I also would like to acknowledge the colleagues of the Italian Association for American Studies (AISNA) and the Italian Society for the Study of the Middle East (SeSaMO) for sharing thoughts and critiques.

Sections of this volume have been presented at conferences in Washington, DC, at Cairo University, El Jadida University in Morocco, the AUB, the University of Catania, and the University Eastern Finland. I wish to thank the organizers and participants of the AGYA conference Destruction/(Re)construction: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cultural Heritage in Conflict, particularly Julia Hauser, Konstantin Klein, Lena-Maria Mller, Mohammad Alwahaib, Bilal Orfali and Stefan Tobias Maneval for rich conversations and exchanges. I am grateful to the organizers and participants of the Conceptions and Configurations of the Arabic Literary Canon workshop organized at the Columbia Global Center in Paris for providing meaningful feedback. My heartfelt appreciation to Muhsin al-Musawi, Claire Gallien, Sara R. bin Tyeer, Abdelfattah Kilito, Marina Warner, Omnia El Shakry, Lara Harb, and Marwa Elshakry for their enthusiasm, advice, and support.

I owe the editorial team at Syracuse University Press, especially Acquisition Editor Margaret Solic and the anonymous reviewers, my thanks for careful reading and essential suggestions.

Last but not least, I wish to thank my family and close friends for their unfaltering love and trust.

Parts of this book have appeared previously in print. I am grateful for the permission to reprint this material here.

A section of first appeared in Italian as Dis/Equilibri: Districare il nodo genere e potere nella poesia araba diasporica, in Districare il nodo genere-potere: sguardi interdisciplinari su politica, lavoro, sessualit e cultura