Universalism & narration. A Conversation with Adania Shibli (Palestine)

Universalism & narration. A Conversation with Adania Shibli (Palestine)
For our sixth conversation in the series “Universalism & … “, the Minor Universality research team speaks with writer and researcher Adania Shibli (Palestine). Our conversation traces writing, in Shibli’s work, as an experience of learning to live as well as of approaching the unwritten, the stammered, the stuttered. We speak about the modern 19th century novel as a form through and against which to find other, minor, gestures and methods to enter writing as a non-hierarchal, anti-authoritarian form. How can writing be designed by fear, loss, and the unwritten? If literature has been complicit in nation-building and modern formations of identity, can writing also engender a different form of engagement with and for others? If so, what forms will it take?
Adania Shibli, born in Palestine, writes fiction and non-fiction. Her novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays were published internationally in different languages. She has twice been awarded with the Young Writer of the Year Award by the A M Qattan Foundation (2001 and 2003). Her latest novel is Tafsil Thanawi (2017), translated as Minor Detail (2020, Fitzcarraldo Edition, UK) was listed for the International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the National Book Awards (2020). She has edited the essay collection A Journey of Ideas Across: In Dialog with Edward Said (2014). Shibli holds a PhD in Media and Cultural studies from the University of East London and lectured at the School of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham (2005-2009). She has been invited to the EHESS (Paris, 2008) and was a fellow at the EUME, c/o Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin (2011-2012). Since 2013, Shibli has been teaching part time at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, Palestine, and elsewhere.
00:00:00 beginning
00:00:16 bibliography & universality
00:03:58 Saïd and the form of the novel
00:20:00 the minor and the novel
00:25:13 fear
00:32:54 heritage, rupture, and appropriation
00:44:28 the nation state and collective writing
00:55:36 museums, curation, narration
01:07:54 woundedness (conclusion)
“Minor Universality: Narrative World Productions After Western Universalism” is a transdisciplinary research project based at the Saarland University and funded by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant).
Principal Investigator: Professor Markus Messling
Project team: Elsie Cohen, M.A., Azyza Deiab, Dr Franck Hofmann, Clément Ndé Fongang, M.A., Dr Hélène Thiérard, Dr Jonas Tinius
[e-mail]
www.uni-saarland.de/forschen/...
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Pour notre sixième conversation de la série "Universalisme & ... ", l'équipe de recherche Minor Universality s'entretient avec l'écrivaine Adania Shibli (Palestine). Notre conversation situe l'écriture, dans l'œuvre de Shibli, comme une expérience d'apprentissage de la vie ainsi que comme une approche du non-écrit, du balbutié, du bégayé. Nous parlons du roman moderne du 19ème siècle comme d'une forme à travers, et contre laquelle, trouver d'autres gestes et méthodes, mineurs, pour aborder l'écriture comme une forme non-hiérarchique et anti-autoritaire. Comment l'écriture peut-elle être façonnée par la peur, la perte et le non-écrit ? Si la littérature a été complice de la construction de la nation et des formations modernes de l'identité, l'écriture peut-elle aussi engendrer une forme différente d'engagement avec, et pour les autres ? Si oui, quelles formes prendra-t-elle ?

[@adrianafischetti2547]

Thank you for this video. As you can see from the lone comment, the novel is a difficult piece of literature that takes time and effort to uncover. It has been awarded the English PEN award and has been shortlisted for other awards.

[@Dakini31]

Read the book first in English then in Arabic to make sure that it wasn’t a poor translation but it’s still not very good. I do not recommend.