Fady Joudah, Mahmoud Darwish, and Ghassan Kanafani at the LARB:
Mahmoud Darwish wrote two main texts on Ghassan Kanafani almost four years apart: “An Attempt to Mourn a Volcano” and “A Gazelle Heralding an Earthquake.” The former is lyrically disruptive: a raw, charged assemblage of references to Kanafani’s works and life, but also of signs and posts that would subsequently populate Darwish’s writing towards bidding “farewell to a stage” of his life. Darwish published “Attempt” within days after the Israeli Mossad assassinated Kanafani in Beirut, on July 8, 1972, with a car bomb that also killed his niece, Lamis, 17, who was with him. Lamis, “the Little Lantern.”
Kanafani’s death was a watershed moment for Palestinians everywhere, especially so for Darwish. Kanafani’s martyrdom illuminated a path that Darwish lays bare in “Earthquake,” published in 1976. “A Gazelle Heralding an Earthquake” is meandering literary criticism punctuated with meditations on what constitutes “a revolutionary writer.” The essay celebrates Ghassan Kanafani’s legacy, his ink’s refusal to dry, beyond lazy, reflexive, or opportunistic co-optation.
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.