Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 01/2010

Contexts of Language in Mahmoud Darwish

Ibrahim Muhawi

December 2009

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

Abstract

This paper explores three contexts of language in Mahmoud Darwish's poetry. The first is Darwish's performative use of language. The second deals with reading Darwish as a resistance poet. The third is Darwish's death, which I interpret as part of his language. This last point is speculative but of considerable interest in view of the role he assumed as the poetic voiceo f Palestine.