internationales literaturfestival berlin 2009, day 4

Mediating Arab-language literature
The winner of the Arab Booker Prize for Literature 2009
International Slam! Revue in Kreuzberg

Mediating Arab-language literature

Weekend in Berlin – and there are more events at the ilb 2009.

Two panels (one in the morning, the other after lunch) discuss the structural problems faced by the intermediaries of Arab literature. The morning panel considers the problem of education and, related to that, the weakness of the indigenous literary public spheres in Arab countries. The afternoon panel discusses the problems faced by publishers, agents and translators interested in introducing Western publics to Arab-language literature. A UK-Germany comparison is provided by Margaret Obank, the editor of Banipal, the only English-speaking journal of Arab literature, and Larissa Bender, one of the most well-known translators of Arab literature in German. Their presentations are complemented by Fouad El-Auwad who works in Switzerland as an intermediary / agent of Arab literature and Hassan Hammad who launched a German literary journal for Arab literature and poetry.

All participants complain about the lack of money. The promotion of Arab literature is not possible without subsidies; but the subsidies available are not enough to cover both translation costs and the organizational costs for networking events. Translators of Arab literature must often work for very little money with no rights for royalties. There are also complaints about the narrow-mindedness of publishers and the prejudices – both positive and negative – associated with the Arab world, which often function as a barrier for new entrants. Currently publishers are only interested in Arab writers who write about women’s oppression or Islamic fundamentalism. But these subjects do not interest all authors. Rather there is the danger that writers will feel pressured to write on specific topics only for publishing or political purposes. Another problem is the lack of national literary criticism, which means that there are no quality standards.

The advantage in Germany is that literature establishments like the ilb support Arab literature; in contrast, literature festivals in the UK are very cautious about presenting literature in translation. On the other hand, the publishing market in the UK is larger and this means there is more of a critical mass for the promotion of literature – including Arab-language literature. In Germany, the publication of Arab-language writers is basically a niche market occupied by a few smaller publishing houses. The British have also been more active in promoting international events in the Middle East – like the Emirates Airline International Literature Festival in Dubai in 2009 and 2010 and the Beirut39 event of the Hay Festival next year.

All panelists welcome the introduction of the Arab Booker Prize. They think this will give a boost to Arabic literature in general. Prizes are important prestige instruments and attract publicity. In the UK there is now also a prize for the best Arabic-English translation of a work of fiction.

The winner of the Arab Booker Prize for Literature 2009

Youssef Ziedan might have won the Arab Booker Prize 2009 but today’s talk – one of a long series organized throughout the festival – is a disappointment. Ziedan is director of the manuscript centre of the Alexandria Library and a Sufi scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies. His lecture deals with the meaning(s) of the term ‘Turath’ . Turath represents a country’s cultural heritage. But in Arabic, Ziedan claims, the term is more complex, and the words in German / English do not capture the complexity – in a way similar to the U.S. ‘naïve’ interpretation of Osaba bin Laden, he adds. Basically what he is saying – in an extremely pompous and repetitive speech – is that the literary (or political) theorist must be sensitive to the context of emergence (and subsequent use) of specific terms. Sure – sounds pretty mainstream and global to me. So what is with the blurb about the longer and more complex Arab cultural history or the specificity (as in beyond understanding) of national and religious history?

Listening to Ziedan talk it is difficult not to think that his carrying the Arab Booker prize might have also been politically motivated. After all, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, is who is running for the UNESCO presidency, but who is contested for earlier comments on the removal of Hebrew-language books from Egyptian libraries. Ziedan’s book theme has been presented as an attack on monotheistic religions and especially Christianity. Religious institutions are undoubtedly no good compasses for multiculturalism. And it also comes in handy that one can mount a counter-attack on those raging about Islamic fundamentalism with a historical novel on Christian fundamentalism. It is a minefield of the never-ending ‘you say; I say’ type. One must wait for the translation of Ziedan’s book to make one’s own judgement. As a lecturer he is old-fashioned and his political side-comments are alienating.

International Slam! Revue in Kreuzberg

At last crazy Berlin!

The best event till now – the international Slam! Revue. At an alternative stage in Kreuzberg, called ironically ‘Festsaal Kreuzberg’ and located next to a mosque in Berlin’s loudest and most multicultural area.

I knew little about slam poetry prior to this evening, a cultural deficit I must absolutely correct. Slam poetry is good poetry – young, dynamic, impertinent, political and still lyrical. The international literature festival berlin has provided a platform for international slam poetry. This was the 8th international slam revue taking place in Berlin, organized by Martin Jankowski of the ilb core team. This year’s edition brought twelve artists from different countries (Canada, UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain and Germany) to present their work and also compete for the public’s preferences using the so-called ‘applause-meter’. All were simply great. Poetry lovers or would-be poetry curious should check out the performances at www.slammin-poetry.de

Laura Wihlborg from Sweden won with two performance-poems in mixed English and Swedish language about playing it ‘safe’ in relationships and trying to book a flight from hell to anywhere using the automatic phone operator. Hilarious and brilliantly subversive. Laura was the youngest competing artist and one of a total of 8 woman (out of 12 contesters)! Also very good were Queen KA (Canada) with her political poems about amok killings in schools and the short-term historical memory of societies; Stefano Raspini (Italy) performing against Berlusconi; Paula Varjack (UK) about the men a woman should not fall in love with; and Lauréline Kuntz (France) on women and sex.