The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Exile and Counterpoint in Farah&apos;s <i>Maps</i>

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Arab Studies Quarterly

Volume 40, Issue 2

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The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Exile and Counterpoint in Farah's Maps

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Author(s): Tayseer Abu Odeh

Publication date (Print): Spring 2018

Journal: Arab Studies Quarterly

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: exile, counterpoint, late style, resistance, home, map Tayseer Abu Odeh, Assistant Professor, Arab Open University

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Abstract

Taking as its starting point Edward Said's appropriation of the concept of counterpoint, late style, and exile in Culture and Imperialism and On Late Style, this essay examines the thematic and literary implications of Nuruddin Farah's counterpoint and exile, as manifested in Maps. More concretely, building on Said's secular and humanist examination of counterpoint, late style, and exile as embodying a form of musical, aesthetic and sociopolitical criticism and resistance, this essay examines the way in which Nuruddin Farah addresses the aesthetic and home in Somalia as a counterpoint to the dictatorial masculine oppression of the regime from a contrapuntal and exilic perspective. The theme of postcolonial transnational feminism as a contrapuntal sign of resistance and late style is examined and interrogated in Farah's Maps in various ways. I investigate contrapuntally the way in which Somalian women, as portrayed in Farah's selected works, stand up to challenge the hegemonic patriarch and postcolonial regime in Somalia, as represented by the General Siad Barre and the oligarchy. Somalian female identity foregrounds itself in a pertinent and humanist way within a postcolonial feminist context.

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Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): arabstudquar

Title: Arab Studies Quarterly

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 02713519

ISSN (Electronic): 20436920

Publication date (Print): Spring 2018

Volume: 40

Issue: 2

Pages: 134-154

Article

Publisher ID: arabstudquar.40.2.0134

DOI: 10.13169/arabstudquar.40.2.0134

SO-VID: cb480e45-09dc-40d9-98d5-05ce44402134

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History

References

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism . London: Verso.
Ashcroft, Bill, Griffiths, Gareth and Tiffin, Helen (2006). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader . London: Routledge.
Butler, Judith (2012). What Shall We Do Without Exile: Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish Address the Future. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics , 32, 30–54.
Eagleton, Terry (1983). Literary Theory: An Introduction . Oxford: Blackwell.
Fanon, Frantz (1961). On National Culture. In Postcolonialism: An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism , 198–219.
Farah, Nuruddin (1998). A Country in Exile. Transition , 57(1), 4–8.
Farah, Nuruddin (1995). Bastards of Empire: Writing and the Politics of Exile. Transition , 65(1), 26.
Farah, Nuruddin (2000). Maps . New York: Arcade.
Gourgouris, Stathis (2005). The Late Style of Edward Said. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics , 25, 37–45.
Huggan, Graham (1989). Decolonizing the Map: Post-Colonialism, Post-Structuralism and the Cartographic Connection. Austrian Review of International and European Law , 20, 407.
Huggan, Graham and Tiffin, Helen (2010). Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment . London: Routledge.
Lynn Brown, Michelle (2010). Bleeding for the Mother (Land): Reading Testimonial Bodies in Nurud-din Farah's Maps. Research in African Literature , 41, 137.
Patterson, Annabel (2014). The International Novel . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rushdie, Salman (1991). Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 . London: Granta.
Said, Edward (1979). Orientalism . New York: Vintage.
Said, Edward (1986). After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives . New York: Pantheon.
Said, Edward (1994). Culture and Imperialism . New York: Knopf.
Said, Edward (2006). On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain . New York: Pantheon.
Said, Edward (1983). The World, the Text, and the Critic . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Comments

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[1] Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism . London: Verso.

[2] Ashcroft, Bill, Griffiths, Gareth and Tiffin, Helen (2006). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader . London: Routledge.

[3] Butler, Judith (2012). What Shall We Do Without Exile: Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish Address the Future. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics , 32, 30–54.

[4] Eagleton, Terry (1983). Literary Theory: An Introduction . Oxford: Blackwell.

[5] Fanon, Frantz (1961). On National Culture. In Postcolonialism: An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism , 198–219.

[6] Farah, Nuruddin (1998). A Country in Exile. Transition , 57(1), 4–8.

[7] Farah, Nuruddin (1995). Bastards of Empire: Writing and the Politics of Exile. Transition , 65(1), 26.

[8] Farah, Nuruddin (2000). Maps . New York: Arcade.

[9] Gourgouris, Stathis (2005). The Late Style of Edward Said. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics , 25, 37–45.

[10] Huggan, Graham (1989). Decolonizing the Map: Post-Colonialism, Post-Structuralism and the Cartographic Connection. Austrian Review of International and European Law , 20, 407.

[11] Huggan, Graham and Tiffin, Helen (2010). Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment . London: Routledge.

[12] Lynn Brown, Michelle (2010). Bleeding for the Mother (Land): Reading Testimonial Bodies in Nurud-din Farah's Maps. Research in African Literature , 41, 137.

[13] Patterson, Annabel (2014). The International Novel . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[14] Rushdie, Salman (1991). Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 . London: Granta.

[15] Said, Edward (1979). Orientalism . New York: Vintage.

[16] Said, Edward (1986). After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives . New York: Pantheon.

[17] Said, Edward (1994). Culture and Imperialism . New York: Knopf.

[18] Said, Edward (2006). On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain . New York: Pantheon.

[19] Said, Edward (1983). The World, the Text, and the Critic . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.