Annie Patton's Annotated Bibliography
Background Sources
As this project is one of chronological nature, the following background sources will be cited according to their relevance to certain time periods (i.e. plot points). Most will be referenced several times (at many plot points) as they provide information about specific poems and events as well as an overview, or analysis, of Mahmoud Darwish's entire life and career.1. Nassar, Hala Khamis, and Najat Rahman. Mahmoud Darwish, Exile's Poet: Critical Essays. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch, 2008. Print.
Published soon after the death of Mahmoud Darwish, "Exile's Poet" provides a resourceful collection of critical essays that are written by some of Darwish's closest friends and colleagues. After browsing the online UT library catalog, I was directed to this book and promptly checked it out. It is a book of passionate secondary sources/accounts that will offer insight into and supplementary information about Darwish the poet, the political influence, the Palestinian, and how the three en masse impacted society, politically and spiritually, throughout his life and after.
2. Darwīsh, Maḥmūd, and Fady Joudah. The Butterfly's Burden: Poems. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon, 2007. Print.
To understand any poet, one must dive deep into their work(s). Reading Darwish's poetry is fundamental to this project and absolutely imperative when honoring his life. The Butterfly's Burden includes poems from 1998 to 2002 that range in topic, however, provide a glimpse into the last decade of Darwish's life. Several of these poems will be referenced during the last 2-3 plot points as these reflect the last places he lived. Rather than reading them all online, a medium that seems unbefitting to the poetry's original print form, I found some of his works through the UT Library catalog and checked them all out.
3. Darwīsh, Maḥmūd, and Fady Joudah. If I Were Another. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Print.
If I Were Another is an additional collection of poetry, written during 1990 to 2005. Compared to The Butterfly's Burden, these poems follow themes more distinctly related to exile, displacement, identity, home , and isolation. It is imperative to consume as much of his work as possible in order to fully and properly present him within a research project. However, very few of his collections can be found at the UT Library due to the limited amount of English-translated versions. Poems like "Eleven Planets" will be referenced in the last plots of the map.
4. Rahman, Najat. In the Wake of the Poetic: Palestinian Artists after Darwish. New York: Syracuse UP, 2015. Print.
Rahman, a beloved friend to Darwish, explores the future of Palestinian cultural expression after the death of Darwish and the subsequent rippling effect he has had on the younger generations of Palestinian artists. Through surveying several contemporary artists such as Sharif Wake and Elia Suleiman (among many), Rahman outlines an "aesthetic" of dispossession, loss, and transcendence that resonates with the past and present in a way that is reinvigorating for the future. I will use this information and sense/tone of hope to accompany the final plot point on the map--that even though we have reached his final stop, we have not reached our end and neither have the younger generations. After following Darwish through his life, we must let him follow ours through us.
Cultural Sources
1. "Al-Birwa - البروه -Acre - Palestine Remembered." Al-Birwa - البروه -Acre - Palestine Remembered. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.What an amazing resource to discover accidentally! Palestine Remembered, "The Home of Ethnically Cleansed & Occupied Palestinians," offers a resounding amount of historical, geographical, and political information surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Additionally, the site provides [periodically updated] information about every Palestinian town before and after the initial Israeli occupation in 1948. This includes extensive charts, tables, maps, and pictures for each town and the opportunity for site users to contribute/upload any information or pictures they have to improve the comprehensive content. It is difficult to determine who (or how many) conduct(s) the site or how often the site is updated--however it is immensely apparent their goal and dedication to keeping the public informed, providing a platform for refugees to communicate, and to honor Palestine through as much factual information as they can acquire. Truly mesmerizing. For plot points 1-3, the beginning of Darwish's life, this site will be used to show pictures of al-Birwa (hometown) as well as the statistics about its population, when it was occupied, and what it is known as today. It will act as both a visual and background source for this project.
2. Njabe567. "Yasser Arafat Speech Young at the UN (United Nations)in 1974."YouTube. YouTube, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
After Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization for several decades, delivered his speech to the United Nation's General Assembly in 1974, Palestine's right to self-determination was recognized for the first time. This was a monumental leap for the PLO, not to mention the Palestinian population at large. For plot point 5, I will use clips from this speech that were written by Darwish for the purposes of demonstrating his political involvement in, influence on, and significance to history. It is a speech significant to not only Darwish's life and career, but Palestine and its people. It is a speech that remains to be referenced till this day--a video or transcript can be found virtually anywhere.
3. Mohamedsamo. "Marcel Khalife-Passport-جواز سفر - Jawaz El Safar."YouTube. YouTube, 29 Mar. 2008. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.
A video of Marcel Khalife performing "Passport," one of many musical interpretations of Darwish's poetry that brought Khalife fame and recognition throughout the 1970s on until today. Khalife was a Lebanese composer and singer, becoming globally known for composing music for at least three of Darwish's most treasured poems. (Most of these musical interpretations can be found on Youtube because of its popularity, but I was directed by an Arab friend to research his work in relation to Darwish.) This video, of which I will only play a few stanzas, embodies the spirit of Darwish's poetry in a way that binds Palestine to the world, timelessly. If Darwish was the axiom, Khalife was his anthem.
4. As the Land Is the Language. Dir. Simone Bitton. Perf. Mahmoud Darwish. 1997. Documentary.
French-Israeli documentary filmmaker Simone Bitton wrote and directed "As the Land is the Language," hour-long film--suffices to say, one of the only films that can be found--wherein Darwish speaks about his work, life, and Palestine through several, in-depth interviews with Bitton. Coupled with the powerful interviews and quotes, Bitton visually captures the poet's mind and spirit in a way most of his audience never knew and/or will never know. I will use several clips from this film throughout the map as hearing and seeing Darwish will bring to life his experiences better than I would ever be able to. Luckily enough, I found this film through random internet searches and rabbit holes.