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"Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet": Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Conference paper

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"Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet": Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon. / Alammar, Layla.
2022. Paper presented at Post-Millennial MENAWA.

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Conference paper

Harvard

Alammar, L 2022, '"Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet": Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon', Paper presented at Post-Millennial MENAWA, 21/06/22 - 22/06/22.

APA

Alammar, L. (2022). "Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet": Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon. Paper presented at Post-Millennial MENAWA.

Vancouver

Alammar L. "Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet": Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon. 2022. Paper presented at Post-Millennial MENAWA.

Author

Alammar, Layla. / "Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet" : Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon. Paper presented at Post-Millennial MENAWA.

Bibtex

@conference{66bdf74822a14e87bdf22a667467a8fa,
title = "{"}Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet{"}: Uncanny Modernity and the Ontological Un-Being of the Modern Arab Male in Ghada Samman's The Square Moon",
abstract = "This paper demonstrates that uncanny, exilic estrangement in Ghada Samman{\textquoteright}s short story collection The Square Moon (1994 [1998]) presents an opportunity for a radical re-imagining of the Arab intellectual as a woman, which registers the full scope of disharmony between theory and praxis that epitomises the intellectual{\textquoteright}s melancholic anxiety. Repurposing Lacan{\textquoteright}s statement la femme n{\textquoteright}existe pas, by which he asserts that Woman lacks a signifier in the Symbolic order, I argue that Samman{\textquoteright}s perennially alienated Lebanese {\'e}migr{\'e}s indicate that there is no signifier for the “modern” Arab male. Her stories are replete with Arab men unable to navigate the trappings of modernity, resulting in the infliction of trauma on those around them. Having left behind a Symbolic order (culture, laws, traditions) they understood and in which they were integrated and privileged, exile presents its own Symbolic order in which these men have no place. Thus, the diasporic site is where the modern Arab male is made to face his own ontological un-being.",
keywords = "Ghada Samman, Arab literature, Arab women, psychoanalysis, literary trauma theory, uncanny",
author = "Layla Alammar",
year = "2022",
month = jun,
day = "21",
language = "English",
note = "Post-Millennial MENAWA : New Approaches to Literature, Translation, and Creative Expression ; Conference date: 21-06-2022 Through 22-06-2022",
url = "https://menawapoco.wordpress.com/",

}

RIS

TY - CONF

T1 - "Perhaps I was a Lebanese Hamlet"

T2 - Post-Millennial MENAWA

AU - Alammar, Layla

PY - 2022/6/21

Y1 - 2022/6/21

N2 - This paper demonstrates that uncanny, exilic estrangement in Ghada Samman’s short story collection The Square Moon (1994 [1998]) presents an opportunity for a radical re-imagining of the Arab intellectual as a woman, which registers the full scope of disharmony between theory and praxis that epitomises the intellectual’s melancholic anxiety. Repurposing Lacan’s statement la femme n’existe pas, by which he asserts that Woman lacks a signifier in the Symbolic order, I argue that Samman’s perennially alienated Lebanese émigrés indicate that there is no signifier for the “modern” Arab male. Her stories are replete with Arab men unable to navigate the trappings of modernity, resulting in the infliction of trauma on those around them. Having left behind a Symbolic order (culture, laws, traditions) they understood and in which they were integrated and privileged, exile presents its own Symbolic order in which these men have no place. Thus, the diasporic site is where the modern Arab male is made to face his own ontological un-being.

AB - This paper demonstrates that uncanny, exilic estrangement in Ghada Samman’s short story collection The Square Moon (1994 [1998]) presents an opportunity for a radical re-imagining of the Arab intellectual as a woman, which registers the full scope of disharmony between theory and praxis that epitomises the intellectual’s melancholic anxiety. Repurposing Lacan’s statement la femme n’existe pas, by which he asserts that Woman lacks a signifier in the Symbolic order, I argue that Samman’s perennially alienated Lebanese émigrés indicate that there is no signifier for the “modern” Arab male. Her stories are replete with Arab men unable to navigate the trappings of modernity, resulting in the infliction of trauma on those around them. Having left behind a Symbolic order (culture, laws, traditions) they understood and in which they were integrated and privileged, exile presents its own Symbolic order in which these men have no place. Thus, the diasporic site is where the modern Arab male is made to face his own ontological un-being.

KW - Ghada Samman

KW - Arab literature

KW - Arab women

KW - psychoanalysis

KW - literary trauma theory

KW - uncanny

UR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXsXOhrqobQ

M3 - Conference paper

Y2 - 21 June 2022 through 22 June 2022

ER -