15 READS - Autumn 23
Water
Resilience
Folk tales, storytelling and the oral tradition
Bearing witness
The collective
Click here to download this list (word version)
Each edition is selected and described by Dr Jane McArthur, a writer and arts producer based in Dumfries and Galloway
Bernardo Atxaga
Water Over Stones
Water appears as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life in these inter-linked stories set in the Basque country.
Bernardo Atxaga, Water Over Stones, (2019), translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Thomas Bunstead, MacLehose Press, 2022.
Water appears as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life in these inter-linked stories set in the Basque country. It is symbolic of the passing of time, expressed in the ebb and flow of the lives of a group of characters connected to the mining town of Ugarte. Redolent of the meanders, eddies and surges of water, an event in one story leads to repercussions in another, the protagonist in one re-appears but only on the periphery of the narrative of another. So too does this area’s troubled history delicately shadow the novel moving from the last days of Franco’s dictatorship to the 1990s, shifting place from a bakery to an army training camp, a summer language school in France to a hospital bedside.
Bernardo Atxaga, Water Over Stones, (2019), translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Thomas Bunstead, MacLehose Press, 2022.
Water appears as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life in these inter-linked stories set in the Basque country. It is symbolic of the passing of time, expressed in the ebb and flow of the lives of a group of characters connected to the mining town of Ugarte. Redolent of the meanders, eddies and surges of water, an event in one story leads to repercussions in another, the protagonist in one re-appears but only on the periphery of the narrative of another. So too does this area’s troubled history delicately shadow the novel moving from the last days of Franco’s dictatorship to the 1990s, shifting place from a bakery to an army training camp, a summer language school in France to a hospital bedside.
Tawfiq Cannan
Haunted Springs and Water Demons in Palestine
In analysing the folk tales relating to particular wells and springs in the Palestine of 1922, Cannan reveals something of the lives and customs of the people from whom he collected the stories.
Tawfiq Cannan, Studies in Palestinian Customs and Folklore. Haunted Springs and Water Demons in Palestine, The Palestine Oriental Society, 1922.
Jumana Emil Abboud suggested this study for 15 Reads, this being one of the sources which informs her own work. In analysing the folk tales relating to particular wells and springs in the Palestine of 1922, Cannan reveals something of the lives and customs of the people from whom he collected the stories. The author describes the entities in animal or human form who haunt the watery sites, naming each location as he seeks to understand why water in particular attracted the culture and beliefs, the folklore and customs he describes. Of its time, the paper reads as much as a naming of places as an ethnographical survey.
Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Haunted_Springs_and_Water_Demons_in_Palestine,_1922
Tawfiq Cannan, Studies in Palestinian Customs and Folklore. Haunted Springs and Water Demons in Palestine, The Palestine Oriental Society, 1922.
Jumana Emil Abboud suggested this study for 15 Reads, this being one of the sources which informs her own work. In analysing the folk tales relating to particular wells and springs in the Palestine of 1922, Cannan reveals something of the lives and customs of the people from whom he collected the stories. The author describes the entities in animal or human form who haunt the watery sites, naming each location as he seeks to understand why water in particular attracted the culture and beliefs, the folklore and customs he describes. Of its time, the paper reads as much as a naming of places as an ethnographical survey.
Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Haunted_Springs_and_Water_Demons_in_Palestine,_1922
Lisa Schneidu
River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland
Myths and legends describe the origin of the rivers and watery places of these islands. Narrated by an ecologist, each group of tales is situated within the long history of our manipulation of watercourses as well as present-day environmental concerns.
Lisa Schneidu, River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland, The History Press, 2022.
Myths and legends describe the origin of the rivers and watery places of these islands. They speak of enchantment, unearthly creatures and the physical and allegorical boundaries between water and land, as stories describe the life-giving and life-taking aspects of rivers, floodplains, lakes and streams. Narrated by an ecologist, each group of tales is situated within the long history of our manipulation of watercourses as well as present-day environmental concerns.
Alice Oswald
Dart
The natural and human worlds intermingle in Oswald’s narrative prose poem which traces the river Dart from its source to the sea.
Alice Oswald, Dart, (2002) Faber and Faber, 2010.
The natural and human worlds intermingle in Oswald’s narrative prose poem which traces the river Dart from its source to the sea. Inspired by conversations she recorded with people who live and work along the river, she shows not only that the river is a source of leisure and livelihood, but that it holds personal associations and local histories. Combining daily life with legend, history with the pragmatic, place names with the names of the living and the dead, the rhythms of the poem reflect the different characteristics of the water as it moves through land and townscapes, trickles shallowly across stone and languidly flows through water meadows.
Elias Khoury
Gate of the Sun
Taking the form of an epic narrative, Khoury positions Dr Khaleel as the witness who tells of the Nakba and the fight for freedom, of the loss of home, land, community and lives, of fragmented families and a displaced people, of refusal and adaptation and of much that remains unspoken.
Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun, (1998), translated by Humphrey Davis, Vintage Books, 2007.
‘The issue isn’t what happened but how we report and remember it’, Dr Khaleel tells us as he relays the stories surrounding the life of his patient Yunis, an elderly Palestinian freedom fighter who lies in a coma in a makeshift hospital in the Shatila refugee camp. Taking the form of an epic narrative, Khoury positions Dr Khaleel as the witness who tells of the Nakba and the fight for freedom, of the loss of home, land, community and lives, of fragmented families and a displaced people, of refusal and adaptation and of much that remains unspoken. He reminds us through the different voices who relay often the same event but from each person’s unique perspectives, that there is no single story of the Palestinian struggle as there is no single story of love, family loyalty or betrayal. Informed by the experiences Khoury collected from refugees in camps in Lebanon in the 1960s, the narrative also reflects the importance of naming the places now lost to the Palestinians and the stories these remembered places still hold, but now only in memory.
Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana
Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales
These tales, gathered from across Palestine between 1978 and 1980, often pithy, sometimes comical, deal with the complexities of family life and in the main the actions and the status of women.
Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, with a new Foreword by Ibtisam Barakat, Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, (1989), University of California Press, 2021.
The folk tales told in the main by older women are described by Barakat as a collective effort. They are grouped together in subjects opening with the microcosm of the immediate family and ending with broader subjects which extend beyond the confines of the household and community to the wider environment. The tales, gathered from across Palestine between 1978 and 1980, often pithy, sometimes comical, deal with the complexities of family life and in the main the actions and the status of women. Magical occurrences, great journeys and feats, losses and rewards, resilience and revenge, the actions of kings and peasants alike are told in the main from the women’s viewpoint. The collection is contextualised by the authors’ scholarly introduction and notes which provide context and add richness to the reading.
Nina Berberova
The Billancourt Tales
Thinly disguised as a male observer, Berberova bears witness to the lives of white Russian immigrants who had been brought to Paris to work in the Billancourt Renault factory.
Nina Berberova, The Billancourt Tales (1992), translated by Marian Schwartz, New Directions Books, 2001.
These Tales or Fiestas as Berberova called them were first published in the Russian émigré newspaper Poslednie novosti, (The Latest News) between 1928 and 1940. Thinly disguised as a male observer, Berberova bears witness to the lives of white Russian immigrants who had been brought to Paris to work in the Billancourt Renault factory. Centred around the cafes and hotels of the quarter, these vignettes capture experiences of exile immersing the reader in the sights and sounds of daily life made extraordinary by each character’s dislocated history and resulting straightened circumstances. Opening with a pithy statement and closing with a profound observation, the Tales bear certain correlations to the German denkbilder published in Frankfurter Zeitung during the Weimar republic.
Forough Farrokhzad
Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season
This selection from Farrokhzad’s five collections of poems, published between 1955 and 1974, move from the deeply personal to broader commentaries on the position of women in Iran.
Forough Farrokhzad, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season. Selected Poems, translated by Elizabeth T. Gray, (New Directions Publishing, 2022).
Acknowledged as ground-breaking at the time of their appearance in print, this selection from Farrokhzad’s five collections of poems, published between 1955 and 1974, move from the deeply personal to broader commentaries on the position of women in Iran. Taking the themes and language tropes of traditional Persian poetry—romantic love, loss, longing—Farrokhzad subverts them, writing of physical desire and passionate love from the female perspective, clearly identifying herself in the writing. A poet and filmmaker, this selection testifies to her struggle for independence and her resilience in a traditional paternalistic society which condemned her life choices.
Silvia Federici
Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons
Silvia Federici draws upon three decades of scholarship for her publication Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, an edited collection of articles in two parts across which she maps historical and ‘new’ forms of enclosure as a context to renewed interest in the commons and in communitarian relations.
Silvia Federici, Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, Pm Press, 2019
Silvia Federici draws upon three decades of scholarship for her publication Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, an edited collection of articles in two parts across which she maps historical and ‘new’ forms of enclosure as a context to renewed interest in the commons and in communitarian relations. Peter Lindbergh introduces Federici as ‘a teacher, a social theorist, an activist, a historian who separates neither politics from economics nor ideas from life.’ The commons, Federici writes, refer to ‘social goods – lands, territories, forests, meadows and streams, or communicative spaces – that a community, not the state or an individual, owns, manages and controls.’ Writing from a feminist perspective on the commons, her essays establish links between women’s reproductive work and forms of commoning activity, and skilfully navigate comprehensive literature on women’s struggles for land in Africa and Latin America, noting that ‘historically and in our time, women have depended on access to communal resources more than men.’
Mahmoud Darwish
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?
These autobiographical imagistic poems of the Nakba are steeped in myth. The early Arabic poets and Qur’anic verses record the long history of the land and the people of Palestine.
Mahmoud Darwish, Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? (1995), translated by Jeffrey Sacks, Archipelago Books, 2006.
Elias Khoury tells us that Darwish ‘creates through words a homeland of memory and imagination’, giving ‘the voiceless their voice’. In this way these autobiographical imagistic poems of the Nakba, which are steeped in myth, the early Arabic poets and Qur’anic verses record the long history of the land and the people of Palestine. Passed down through generations, this profound and fundamental relationship remains alive for Darwish now solely in his imagination. As he bears witness to the loss of his grandfather’s orchard and recollects his own childhood fragmented by war, this poet of exile and loss demonstrates his freedom in the very act of writing, by recording the land of his birth available to him now through memory alone: the colour of the sky, the flight of the sparrows, the scent of basil, his grandfather’s well, the last hill of oaks.
Ismail Kadare
The Three Arched Bridge
Set in 1377, this story is as much about the waning of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of Turkish power as it is a commentary on life in 1970s Albania during the time Kadare was writing this novel.
Ismail Kadare, The Three Arched Bridge, (1981), translated by John Hodgson, Vintage Classics, 2013.
Much to the consternation of the surrounding communities the construction of a bridge begins over the Ujana e Keke river linking the Balkans to Europe, the building of which exacerbates the age-long fateful conflict between the people of the water and the people of the land. Even the seemingly voluntary immurement in the bridge of a villager fails to satisfy the fates; the entombed man a macabre testament to the belief in legend. Set in 1377, this story is as much about the waning of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of Turkish power as it is a commentary on life in 1970s Albania during the time Kadare was writing this novel.
Sonia Nimr
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands
Sharing certain tropes with A Thousand and One Nights and The Odyssey, this is a fast-paced tale of resilience, loyalty, adventure, disguise, the power of friendship and ultimately the search for home.
Sonia Nimr, Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, (2013), translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey, Interlink Books, 2021.
Inspired by a book in her father’s library, Qamar sets out from her family home in Palestine to see the world. Loosely based upon the accounts of the fourteenth century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, this epic tale of a young woman whose travels are initially motivated by curiosity become journeys of necessity. As she travels across deserts and seas, finds refuges in humble homes and palaces, Qamar becomes a storyteller and a healer in order to survive. Sharing certain tropes with A Thousand and One Nights and The Odyssey, this is a fast-paced tale of resilience, loyalty, adventure, disguise, the power of friendship and ultimately the search for home.
Kapka Kassabova
Elixir
Over many visits to the remote Mesta Valley in the author’s native Bulgaria, Kapka Kassabova listens to extraordinary stories told by the people who remain living in what is one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe.
Kapka Kassabova, Elxir: In the Vallery at the End of Time, Jonathan Cape, 2023
Over many visits to the remote Mesta Valley in the author’s native Bulgaria, Kapka Kassabova listens to extraordinary stories told by the people who remain living in what is one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe. The writer meets herbalists, healers and mystics, embedded in nature through plant gathering, practising plant medicine and dealing in medicinal herbs, with limitless knowledge of the healing powers of wild plants and spirituality of place. ‘Herbs are a universe’. ‘Thyme… has a staggering 350 varieties, all of them aromatic and warming.’ This region and its people have faced repeated invasion, persecution, exploitation and unthinkable loss – ecological and cultural – and through this trauma, there continues an ongoing search for healing, of finding ways to heal by remaining deeply connected to that which remains – wild nature, folk practices, ancestral stories, and a deep knowledge of the earth.
Marcel Pagnol
The Water of the Hills
Idealistic Jean de Florette arrives with his wife and daughter in a small Provençal community to farm his ancestral lands. But with his neighbours who have designs on the land secretly stopping-up the spring to his fields—his only source of water—and with the villagers watching the resulting catastrophe unfold from afar, Jean’s dreams are crushed.
Marcel Pagnol, The Water of the Hills. Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs, (1962), translated by W. E. van Heyningen, Pan Books, 1987.
Idealistic Jean de Florette arrives with his wife and daughter in a small Provençal community to farm his ancestral lands. But with his neighbours who have designs on the land secretly stopping-up the spring to his fields—his only source of water—and with the villagers watching the resulting catastrophe unfold from afar, Jean’s dreams are crushed. It is only years later that his daughter Manon of the Springs metes out her revenge and the villagers fully understand the repercussions of their passivity and their own dependence on the water from the hills.
Elena Cheah and Daniel Barenboim
An Orchestra Beyond Borders
Founded by Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim in 1999 ‘as an experiment for people who believe that politics should serve humanity and not vice versa’, these accounts given by members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra reveal the lives of the musicians involved in this collective endeavour.
Elena Cheah and Daniel Barenboim, An Orchestra Beyond Borders: Voices of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Verso Books, 2009.
Founded by Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim in 1999 ‘as an experiment for people who believe that politics should serve humanity and not vice versa’, these accounts given by members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra reveal the lives of the musicians involved in this collective endeavour. Their recounted experiences testify to the personal journeys which brought each person to the youth orchestra and the life-changing opportunities that studying and playing together afforded them. Centred around a pivotal performance in Ramallah, the book reflects the different viewpoints within the orchestra whose members originate from Palestine, Israel, Spain and other Middle Eastern countries. Described by Miriam Said as ‘a humanist endeavour’, these testimonies do not shy away from the often-opposing views of its members, for by facing these differences, like musical counterpoint, Barenboim writes in the Foreword, ‘we attempt to understand the logic behind the opposite position.’