Standing by the Ruins: Elegiac Humanism in Wartime and Postwar Lebanon

Acknowledgments

ack now l ed gm en ts This book is the product of talk as much as it is of reading, watching , and writing. I am grateful to my many mentors and friends whose generosity and wisdom in conversation has made the research and writing of this book so enjoyable. Some have played a preponderant role over an extended period. Susan Stanford Friedman has supported my research for a decade now, and it was she who suggested in fall 2006, right after a war, “Why not write a book about Lebanon?” Angelika Neuwirth has consistently encouraged me to write about modern Arabic literature since the early years of this century when it became clear to some that Lebanese literature was on a roll. Marianne Marroum has been a frank and helpful reader of almost everything I have written in the past decade. Rashid al-Daif consistently encouraged me to resume my study of Arabic after a long hiatus and has provided a consistently supportive voice. Jonathan Hall’s companionable conversation throughout the penultimate year of composition brought many loose ends together. Others have played more punctual roles. I am especially grateful to two eminent senior scholars who read and offered judicious comments on the manuscript: David Damrosch, the brilliant comparatist, and Roger Allen, the great Arabist. Their advice and encouragement have been pivotal in bringing this book to fruition . I have also benefitted from sound advice at key moments from Djelal Kadir, Azade Seyhan, John J. Donohue, S.J., Ziad Majed , Stuart McDougal, Heather Dawkins and Gayatri Chakra- Acknowledgments xii vorty Spivak. Their work has also set the bar for me in all aspects of academic work, and I count on their indulgence as I inevitably slip under it. Other scholars made up the Beirut intellectual environment in which I was so happy to swim for so long: Wafaʾ Abd al-Nour, Lina Abyad, Samira Aghacy, Tarif Bazzi, Vahid Behmardi, Sobhi Boustany, Hassan Daoud, Rebecca Dyer, Abir Hamdar, Maher Jarrar, Assaad Khairallah, Andrew Long, Patrick McGreevy, Robert Myers, Samar Mujaes, Levon Nordiguian, Andreas Pflitsch, Nada Saab, Cheryl Toman, Christophe Varin, Elizabeth Vauthier, Edgard Weber and David Wrisley. My student assistants over the years have made me look more efficient than I am. Hala Daouk deserves special mention, especially for undertaking the job of obtaining copyright permissions. Zoha Abdulsater , Rebecca Ammar, Sarah Ghamlouche, and Faten Yaacoub have all given generously of their time in the production process. In fact, it would be unfair not to mention all my undergraduate and graduate students at Lebanese American University in Beirut . In the often mysterious cross-fertilization between teaching and research, I sometimes had the impression this book was part of our ongoing classroom dialogue. The same teaching-research dynamism has animated the final year of writing and research on this project at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, British Columbia , and thanks go to Miriam Klait for her assistance there. Institutions are an important part of this book. I acknowledge that a year-long sabbatical at half-salary and a generous conference travel budget awarded by the University Research Council of Lebanese American University–Beirut, were key conditions in the production of this book. Special thanks go to the dedicated library staff of the Riyad al-Nassar Library at LAU. Under the leadership of Aida Namaan and now Cendrella Habre, theirs is among the most efficient libraries in which I have had the pleasure of working. Houeida Charara, Sawsan Habre, Aida Hajjar, Bughdana Hajjar, and Kamal Jaroudy have ensured that it was always a pleasure to do library research. In Canada, where I spent the 2009–10 academic year working on this book, I am grateful to Dean Lesley Cormack and her suc- Acknowledgments xiii cessor, John Craig, of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University for their support in the final stages of composition of this manuscript. I am also grateful for the SFU President’s Research Start-up Grant. which funded a key trip to Beirut in summer 2010 where I completed manuscript revisions. Thanks also go to Gloria Ingram, Lindsay Parker, and Erin Westwood of the Program in World Literature at SFU—Surrey for helping me in the crucial business of securing travel funding and in document preparation. I also thank Holly Hendrigan of the SFU–Surrey Library for her energy and effort in supporting this research and securing key sources. At Fordham University Press...