Heralding a new period of creativity, In the Wake of the Poetic explores the aesthetics and politics of Palestinian cultural expression in the last two decades. As it increasingly gains a significant presence on the international scene, much of Palestinian art owes a debt to Mahmoud Darwish, one of the finest contemporary poets, and to Palestinian writers of his generation. Rahman maps the immense influence of Darwish's poetry on a new generation of performance artists, visual artists, spoken-word poets, and musicians. Through an examination of selected works by key artists-such as Suheir Hammad, Ghassan Zaqtan, Elia Suleiman, Mona Hatoum, Sharif Waked, and others-Rahman articulates an aesthetic founded on loss, dispersion, dispossession, and transformation. It interrupts dominant regimes, constituting acts of dissension and intervention. It reinscribes belonging and is oriented toward solidarity and future. This innovative wave of experimentation transforms our understanding of the national through the diasporic and the transnational, and offers a profound meditation on identity.

Literary Disinheritance examines the shifts in the articulations of "home" in the works of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and the Algerian writer Assia Djebar, considering their writing as an instance of a larger cultural expression in the Arab world. Darwish's and Djebar's notions of home respond to textual delineations of heritage that have become historical. They identify a long literary heritage that not only speaks of dispossession and effacement but also suggests that those very predicaments are historically enacted through nationalist and religious readings of inherited stories. The patriarchal narratives that forge collective identity are revisited and reopened; in order to reconstitute the trope of home, they call attention to different facets of discontinuity in their heritage. Author Najat Rahman locates and explores the treatment of these discontinuous moments as the emanate from a rigorous reflection on writing.

Mahmaud Darwish's work has long been considered seminal in shaping modern Arabic poetry. He has received wide international recognition and is regarded as a contender for the Nobel Prize. Often deemed the "Poet of the Resistance." no substantial critical study exists that addresses the complexity of Darwish's poetry in rewriting the homeland and articulating exile. His later poetry consciously marks a move away from his earlier portrayals of identity, home, and poetry, yet many critics have failed to take note of this shift. His oeuvre yokes poetry and history, the political and the poetic, probing identities in perpetual exile. This book examines the complex connections between poetry, myth, lyric, prose, and history in Darwish's poetry. The scholarly articles in this volume situate his work in relation to both modern Arabic and world poetry. In addition, the articles address issues such as the future of poetry, the role of the poet, language, cultural heritage, lyrical modes, as well as the relationship of place and identity.

While Middle Eastern culture does not tend to be associated with laughter and levity in the global imagination, humor - often satirical - has long been a mainstay of mainstream Arabic film. In Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema, editors Gayatri Devi and Najat Rahman shed light on this tradition, as well as humor and laughter motivated by other intent - including parody, irony, the absurd, burlesque, and dark comedy. Contributors trace the proliferation of humor in contemporary Middle Eastern cinema in the works of individual directors and also from the perspectives of genre, national cinemas, and diasporic cinema. Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema explores what humor theorists have identified as an ""emancipatory,"" ""liberatory,"" even ""revolutionary"" function to humor. Among the questions contributors ask are: How does Middle Eastern cinema and media highlight the stakes and place of humor in art and in life? What is its relation to the political? Can humor in cinematic art be emancipatory? What are its limits for its intervention or transformation? Contributors examine the region's masterful auteurs, such as Abbas Kiarostami, Youssef Chahine, and Elia Suleiman and cover a range of cinematic settings, including Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey. They also trace diasporic issues in the distinctive cinema of India and Pakistan. This insightful collection will introduce readers to a variety of contemporary Middle Eastern cinema that has attracted little critical notice. Scholars of cinema and media studies as well as Middle Eastern cultural history will appreciate this introduction to a complex and fascinating cinema. Contributors Include: Perin Gurel, Cyrus Ali Zargar, Elise Burton, Somy Kim, Najat Rahman, Mara Matta, Gayatri Devi, Robert Lang