Contents of th issue

Despite his literary transformation, the Lebanese writer Rashid al-Daif can still see the horrors of his country’s civil war clearly in his mind’s eye. Katja Brinkmann reports on the life and work of this author

The date is 22 January 1979. The place is West-Beirut, Lebanon. Civil war has been raging here for four years and Palestinian militia now control the western part of the city. On this day, Rashid al-Daif drives to the Lebanese University and gives a lecture. Afterwards, he drives home after being held up briefly by a student. He is almost home when a massive explosion rocks the (...)

November the 12th, 2007, by Jasmina Najjar, from iLoubnan.info

Welcome to the world of Rashid al-Daif. Entering this realm is challenging but extremely rewarding. Rashid al-Daif, was born in 1945 in the Northern Lebanese town of Zgharta. Although he has been writing since the age of twenty, it wasn’t until 1979 after a near death experience resulting from a car bomb blast that Al-Daif was provoked to concentrate on writing. Writing presented itself as the perfect outlet for him to relate his redefinition of the self and discover his identity which had been shattered. To date he has (...)

From Banipal, 2008

Sometimes the unexpected can prompt a meltdown; a tiny notice in the newspaper’s police notebook of the murder and burial of our narrator’s father three days earlier frames the novel. Learning English begins with this accidental announcement and ends with the arrival of the narrator at the village in a taxi.

Rachid, our protagonist (someone some day will address this uniformity in al-Daif’s novels where the leading characters have his name), starts by describing himself as a modern man. Educated, with a PhD from France, he teaches Arabic literature in a Lebanese (...)

The Word Volume I Issue2 February 2007. In pdf.

by Nicola Liscutin

A Review of Die Verschwulung der Welt. Rede gegen Rede. Beirut - Berlin by Rashid al-Daif and Joachim Helfer. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2006. 199 pages. ISBN 978-3-518-12477-2.

In 2002, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, Germany, initiated a project of "new forms of literary encounters aimed at improving the mutual awareness of German and Middle Eastern literature." Taking its inspiration from Goethe’s famous essay, the project was entitled "West-East Divan" (West-?stlicher Diwan). Over the last four (...)