But i also showed them a series of images reflecting the growing cult of personality, and concluded with the 1980 invasion of iran, trying to provide the background they would need for the weeks reading, sinan antoons ijaam. The prisoner intersperses terse reports of his ordeal among memories of a literary rebellion, friendship and love. By its nature, vantage theory is also open not only to the uni versals of color. Allowing for some past perspective, the narrative attempts to shed light on the terrorized life of certain iraqi citizens under saddam husseins.
This is a stunning debut by a major young iraqi writerinexile. Ijaam, an iraqi rhapsody press city lights bookstore. Ijaam, explains iraqi expatriate antoon in a prefatory note, is the arabic word used to describe the diacritical dots added to the basic alphabet to represent different phonetic characters. Ijaam, explains iraqi expatriate antoon in a prefatory note, is the arabic word used to. For discussion what is your sense of the meaning of the word rhapsody. The iraqi invasion of iran, i pointed out, brought together most of the issues we had focused. An iraqi rhapsody, the novelist sinan antoon takes advantage of the orthographic ambiguities of arabic to explore themes.
Since these dots can also clarify a words meaning, ijaam has come to mean. An undotted text calls upon us to exercise our freedom in interpreting it and to discover its hidden. Sinan antoon is an iraqiamerican author and his novel tells the story of an iraqi literature student under. As an apparent gesture of mercy after a brutal regimen of torture, his captors provide him with a pen and paper to record his memoirs. An iraqi rhapsody by sinan antoon translated from arabic by.
This book arrives at a crucial moment in our history as the decision is being made whether to expand or terminate the u. One famous example in popular culture is george gershwins rhapsody in blue. An iraqi rhapsody by sinan antoon translated from arabic by rebecca c. Ijaam by sinan antoon, sinan antoon, rebecca johnson. One of the four big questions we have been addressing all semester is the nature of the state, and this week they read naguib mahfouzs the journey of ibn fattoumeh. Ijaam is the story of furat, a prisoner in an iraq reminiscent of the baathi era. He has also published a collection of poems, mawshur muballal bilhuroob a prism. The bulk of the book presents furats prison diaries as transcribed and dotted by the. The main character journeys the world looking for a just society, noting the.
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